Committed to supporting press freedom, U.S. says on Kashmiri journalist Mattoo’s travel block

In March, writer Rana Ayyub, who has been deeply critical of the government, was barred from boarding an international flight

Pulitzer Prize-winning Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo. File

The U.S. State Department has said it is tracking the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo being prevented from boarding a New Delhi-New York flight on October 17 to collect her award. The U.S. also said it supported press freedom and that democratic values were the basis of the India-U.S. relationship.

Ms. Mattoo, a 28-year-old photojournalist, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of COVID-19 in India in 2020, announced on Twitter that she had been stopped at Delhi airport from boarding her flight despite having a valid ticket and U.S. visa. Other journalists who won the prize along with Ms. Mattoo were Adnan Abidi, Amit Dave and the late Danish Siddiqui, all from Reuters. The other two journalists who are not from Kashmir, were, as per reports, allowed to board their flight.

“Being able to attend the award ceremony was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me,” she had written. Ms. Mattoo had been stopped from travelling to Paris in July for a photography exhibition as a winner of the Serendipity Arles grant 2020.

“... We are aware of the reports of Ms. Mattoo being prevented from travelling to the U.S. and are tracking these developments closely. We are committed to supporting press freedom,” Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said at the Department’s press briefing on Wednesday. 

“And as the Secretary has noted, a shared commitment to democratic values, including the respect for the independence of press, is a bedrock of the U.S.-India relationship,” he said, adding that he did not have specific information to share apart from the fact that the U.S. was tracking developments “closely”.

In March, writer Rana Ayyub, who has been deeply critical of the government, was barred from boarding an international flight. In April, Amnesty International Chair Aakar Patel was prevented from travelling to the U.S. from Bengaluru because a Look Out Circular against him had not been withdrawn (despite a Delhi High Court order saying it must). Both individuals were allowed to travel later following court interventions.

Government officials have repeatedly denied that there is crackdown on its critics and that agencies are acting indepedently.