India refuses visa to German journalist for ‘hostile reporting’ of Mumbai attacks

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: The Indian government has refused visa to a German journalist apparently for “hostile reporting” of the November 26 Mumbai attacks.

German Weekly Der Spiegel had appointed Hasnain Kazim, a German journalist of Indian origin, its correspondent in India five months ago. Indian diplomats acknowledged verbally to German officials that they could not approve Kazim’s visa request, as his articles on India were “overly critical and biased”.

“We are dismayed to learn that the Indian authorities have again refused to issue a press visa to a journalist employed by a respected news organisation,” Paris-based world journalist group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) said in a statement. “Excuses have been made about the time needed to process the application but the reality is that the Indian government did not like some of this experienced journalist’s reports and wants to prevent him from returning to India,” the statement added. The organisation urged the Indian government to scrap its archaic practice of banning certain foreign journalists from visiting the country. Kazim wanted to move to New Delhi in May in order to set up there as the South Asia correspondent of both Spiegel Online and Der Spiegel. He previously visited India in November to cover the Mumbai attacks and wrote several articles that won him a nomination for the CNN Journalists Award 2009. Indian diplomats subsequently accused him of ‘hostile’ coverage. They also said his reporting from Mumbai had been ‘illegal’.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg7_53