Kashmiri female journalist barred from traveling abroad to receive Pulitzer award

On 18thOctober, Kashmiri female journalist, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, was barred from traveling to New York by the Indian authorities. Mattoo won a Pulitzer award this year for her commendable work in photojournalism. Mattoo tweeted that “I was on my way to receive the Pulitzer award (@Pulitzerprizes) in New York but I was stopped at immigration at Delhi airport and barred from traveling internationally despite holding a valid US visa and ticket.” This is not the first time that Sana’s right to movement and press have been violated by the Indian authorities. In July, this year, she was barred in a similar way from traveling to Paris to attend a book launch and photo exhibition.
On 22nd October, US Rep Adam Schiff stated that he was “disturbed” to hear that Kashmiri Photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo was barred by the Indian state from flying to accept the Pulitzer and that “efforts to harass and silence the media” must end. Schiff is a senior figure in the Democratic Party and is viewed as a close confidant of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.[11]