New Delhi-controlled State Investigation Agency (SIA) as part of its gag on free press and freedom of opinion is preparing grounds to impose a ban on digital media platforms. The SIA has claimed that the subscription model adopted by digital media platforms can be exploited by “unscrupulous elements” to finance and foment trouble in the occupied territory. The probe agency has stated the same in a charge sheet filed by it against journalists Fahad Shah and Abdul Aala Fazili in a court in Jammu. On 16 March 2023, the court charge-sheeted Fahad Shah and Abdul Aala Fazili, who was arrested earlier, for an article on Kashmir’s freedom from the Indian yoke titled, ‘The shackles of slavery will break’. The article was authored by Fazili and published by Shah’s digital magazine, The Kashmir Walla, back in 2011. As per the charge sheet filed in October 2020, the digital magazine operated on a subscription basis which readers paid a fee. The SIA claimed that Shah received a total of Rs 9,559,163 in three bank accounts, with one of them purportedly receiving foreign funding of Rs 1,059,163 from Reporters Without Borders, an international non-profit organization in 2020-21. The charge sheet claimed that the money was sent in three installments, and the account did not qualify for overseas donations as it was not registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). Reportedly, an account received Rs 58 lakh, of which Rs 30 lakh is foreign contribution via subscription payment, said to be suspicious, the charge sheet claimed. Occupied Jammu and Kashmir is one of the most dangerous places of the world where people associated with the press and media are performing their professional duties in the most difficult circumstances. Its larger aim is to make media a mere carrier of the “news” that the government intends to disseminate and to prevent it from peddling “fake” news and indulging in “anti-national” activities. Journalists in Kashmir face regular threats and harassment, constant surveillance, arrests, and criminal cases under terror laws. The number of foreign correspondents in Kashmir rapidly decreased because of a media policy introduced in June 2020, mandating background checks for journalists. Further tightening its grip, the Modi regime issued an order in September 2021 forcing “unauthorized” journalists to obtain approval before they perform their jobs.