Moscow denies any link with makers equating Kashmir with Palestine
The release of a documentary ‘Kashmir: Palestine in the Making', made by a Germany-based digital media portal has been postponed with the Russian embassy distancing itself from it.
The documentary was to be premiered on Friday at prime time in India but its trailer itself caused a storm.
The makers, Redfish Media, said the release was postponed in response to the security concerns of journalists and contributors involved in the documentary on Kashmir.
What raised the ire of Indian social media users was a sentence in the pre-launch tweet that said, “Indian Kashmir is fast becoming a settler-colonial state” in a reference to New Delhi's invitation for Indians to settle in Ladakh and Kashmir after the removal of Article 370.
Twitter labelled Redfish Media as “Russia state-affiliated” which led to the Russian Embassy clarifying that Moscow had no connection with the editorial decisions of Redfish Media.
Redfish Media, however, took up the issue in detail. “But in the past week we have witnessed how these defamatory labels can have dangerously stark consequences, and today we are forced to take the terrible decision to suspend our publication of a documentary we produced from Kashmir as a result.
“The angle of our documentary, called ‘Kashmir: Palestine in the Making' has previously been reported on in the Washington Post and Al Jazeera, neither of which are labelled Jeff Bezos or Qatar-affiliated media, despite the links to these immensely wealthy financiers.
“If Silicon Valley would ever dare to apply these labels fairly, next time Al Jazeera reports on Kashmir, it could be seized upon as a sign that Qatar and India's strong ties are in danger. It may seem like an absurd conclusion to draw, but it's a fair comparison, except that more is perceived to be at stake in the relations between Russia and India,” it said.
“Thanks to the consequences of this label, we have been left with no choice but to postpone the publication of our documentary in the interests of the safety of both crew and participants,” it added.
