Srinagar, July 15 -- As the situation of the past over three decades makes it clear, journalism in Kashmir is not an easy job. It never has been. Reporters, editors, and photographers have long worked under extraordinary pressures to report the situation, undeterred by an atmosphere clouded by surveillance, internet shutdowns, and threats from multiple sides. We may not have been perfect, but overall many of us have acquitted ourselves well. We have generally followed balance, truth, and fairness in our coverage. These are not the actions of cowards, but acts of professional courage.

To publicly accuse newspapers of burying a story because they lacked "guts," and worse, to imply that some may have been paid off with "the size of the enve...