India, Jan. 21 -- The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) police crossed a red line by issuing verbal summons to journalists of national dailies - including the HT correspondent in Srinagar - over a news report on the administration's move to profile mosques and imams in the Kashmir Valley in the wake of the November 10 Red Fort blast. HT has asked its reporter to ignore a verbal summons, and sought a written one, listing the reasons for the summons.

The police function under immense stress in J&K, a region that has been a hotbed of cross-border terrorism. That, however, is no excuse to intimidate journalists, who are mere messengers of news, both good and bad. Newspapers are not an extension of the government, and have no obligation to toe the gove...