Tag Archives: Indian American Muslim Council

Jailed Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj honoured with human rights journalism award

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JAMMU & KASHMIR :

Irfan Mehraj

Srinagar :

Jailed Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj, who is currently incarcerated under draconian charges, has been honored with the Human Rights and Religious Freedom Journalism Award for 2024.

Mehraj, who won in the Best Video Story category for his impactful work on the heroin epidemic in Kashmir, shared the award with Akanksha Saxena and Khalid Khan of Deutsche Welle, reported Freepress Kashmir.

The awards, organised by the Indian American Muslim Council, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, were presented at a ceremony in Chicago, Illinois. This year, the competition received over 210 entries across four categories.

The prestigious award for ‘Best Video Story on Human Rights and Religious Freedom’ was jointly won, with the top honour going to the three journalists from Deutsche Welle for their impactful documentary, “On Drugs – Kashmir’s Heroin Epidemic.”

The piece stresses upon the growing heroin crisis in Kashmir and lives of people ravaged by addiction in the region.

According to a Human Rights Watch statement issued earlier, said, “While on a professional assignment on 20 March 2023, Mehraj was summoned for questioning and detained by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India in Srinagar under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.”

Irfan has been booked under the draconian UAPA. According to the NIA, Irfan was previously summoned to Delhi in a case related to “NGO terror funding”. The NIA in its press note claimed he was a “close associate” of the Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez.

In June 2023, United Nations experts expressed serious concerns regarding the charges against and arrest of Mehraj and Parvez, stating that their continued detention is ‘designed to delegitimize their human rights work and obstruct monitoring of the human rights situation in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.’

On 7 March 2024, UN experts sounded the alarm on the “harassment and prolonged detention of human rights defenders and journalists” in the country. ( With Agencies Inputs )

source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Indian Muslim>Media / August 28th, 2024

Ismat Ara Wins HRRF ‘Young Journalist of the Year’ Award for Articles Published in The Wire

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NEW DELHI :

The awards were constituted by the Indian American Muslim Council, a Washington DC-based advocacy group, to “highlight stories and amplify voices that are often missing from the mainstream/elite media”.

New Delhi: 

Ismat Ara was among the winners of the first edition of the Human Rights Religious Freedom (HRRF) Journalism Awards, taking home the Young Journalist of the Year Award for stories that were published in The Wire.

She was a joint winner in the category with Scroll‘s Aishwarya S. Iyer.

The awards were constituted by the Indian American Muslim Council, a Washington DC-based advocacy group. The HRRF Journalism Awards strive to “highlight stories and amplify voices that are often missing from the mainstream/elite media”.

“This year our jury chose winners in the extremely troubled times when media in India is under immense pressure from the ruling government,” said Syed Ali, president of IAMC.

Ara was chosen as a joint winner of the Young Journalist of the Year Award for stories on a temple-mosque controversy in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, the tragic consequences of the so-called anti-love jihad law and the lynching of a Muslim youngster in Haryana. She was a staffer for The Wire when the stories were published.

Iyer’s stories covered the aftermath of the Delhi riots of 2020, shrinking space for open namaz in Haryana and the arrest of a Christian pastor in Madhya Pradesh.

Newslaundry‘s Akanksha Kumar was declared the winner of the Best Text Reporting on Human Rights & Religious Freedom category.

Priyanka Thirmurthy of The News Minute and Shahid Tantray of The Caravan won the Best Video Story on Human Rights and Religious Freedom category and Syed Shahriyar was the winner in the Best Photo Story on Human Rights and Religious Freedom category.

Article 14 and the Mooknayak were declared joint-winners of the Best Media Organisation Covering Human Rights and Religious Freedom Journalism.

According to IAMC, the awards received more than 250 entries across five categories. The winners will share a prize pool of Rs 3 lakh.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Gypsy Guillen Kaiser, who is the advocacy and communications director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the watchdog’s annual prison census found that India set a country record last year for the largest number of detained journalists. “The vast majority of journalists detained in India as of December 1, 2021 are Muslims,” Kaiser said.

“The worrying trends in India make HRRF Journalism awards all the more important to uplift and celebrate the invaluable work of the Indian journalist and to remind us of the responsibility that we all share in working to keep them safe,” she added.

source: http://www.thewire.in / The Wire / Home> Media / by The Wire Staff / New Delhi – June 20th, 2022

Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) celebrates Bhim Jayanti

Community Involvement / Social Issues, NRI's / PIO's, World Opinion, , ,

U. S. A. :

Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist ethos, on April 14, marked the birthday of B R Ambedkar which is a national holiday popular as Bhim Jayanti in India.

On the occasion of Bhim Jayanti, IAMC also welcomed the first ever congressional resolution introduced by Representative Ro Khanna, who is the Congressman representing 17th District of California. In his resolution, Khanna has honored Dr B R Ambedkar by highlighting that in this Dalit history month, even in a dark time of Covid, it is inspirational to know that we can find the light of hope in our history as the chief architect of our Constitution had envisioned: labor reforms, codification of gender equality, and the successful inclusion of Article 17 in the Constitution of India to abolish untouchability and its practice in any form.

IAMC endorsed the resolution urging all Indian Americans to join in to celebrate the towering historical figure that Ambedkar was – a fearless feminist and caste abolitionist – whose contributions to the fields of economics, philosophy, religious, jurisprudence, and democracy remain unparalleled, even today. The resolution is also endorsed by Equality Labs and South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT),

“We are forever grateful to Babasaheb Ambedkar for his fearless struggle against systemic oppression, and for his phenomenal contributions in ensuring India’s Constitution celebrates the diverse nature of India,” said Ahsan Khan, President of IAMC.

Speaking about the recent arrest of Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, Khan stated that both the leaders have been indicted based on “fabricated evidence.” The case originated from the annual celebratory gathering at Bhima Koregaon to mark the 200th year of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon victory. Khan added that both Teltumbde and Navlakha were not even present in the event and this is “a clear case of a brazen ‘witch-hunt’ that is reflective of a fascist model of governance.”

Khan opined that in order for us to continue with the legacy of Ambedkar’s lifelong battle to protect basic civil liberties and secular principles, we must “recommit ourselves to the founding vision of the Indian Constitution through liberty, equality and justice for all.”

source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Dalit> India News> Indian Muslim> Lead Story / by TCN News / April 15th, 2020