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| Early Times- Crossing Milestones | | | When Early Times was conceived less than a de
cade ago, it ruffled few feathers in the community.It was admittedly a run-of-the-mill stuff. During embryonic days, most of the readers, for obvious reasons, attached little importance to the fresh entry in a thick crowd of daily newspapers. Soon it unfolded as an eyesore for powers that be on account of its unflinching commitment to professionalism.
Threats, in the conflict area, were transparently galore. Falling in the trap of government, police and intelligence agencies from New Delhi to Srinagar and Jammu to Islamabad—and perhaps far beyond—, becoming the mouthpiece of militants, terrorists of various hues, separatist groups and establishment, besides appeasing individuals in institutions, were the most potential hazards that reduced giants in the field to pulp. By the blessings of Almighty and His beloved deities and saints—Mata Veshnu Devi, Shri Amarnathji Bholenath, Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani, Amir-e-Kabir Mir Syed Ali Hamadani and Hazrat Abu Hamza Makhdoom—this publication house did not need to stoop, either to the menial levels of blackmailers or to the façade of sycophants.
In less than eight years, with the unflinching support of our patrons, your newspaper rose to a zenith of reputation and influence. What we have uniquely achieved in the crowded domain of fourth estate, in the state and outside, is the faith of hundreds of thousands of ordinary, unrepresented readers who have been suffering immensely at the hands of the state as well as non-state establishment for years and decades. It was our conscious decision neither to glorify terror and impose self-styled actors on the hapless people of Jammu and Kashmir nor to supplement the state’s propaganda machinery. We admittedly find ourselves incompetent for such anti-people tasks. Today, Early Times is fast heading to the number one position in Jammu and Kashmir. Its online edition is next only to Srinagar-based Greater Kashmir in terms of access by readers all over the world. With your valuable support and patronage, we have been carrying the best content and quality reporting and thus established credibility that matters to us much more than quantity and circulation of some freely distributed dailies.
Without nourishing ill-will or malice for our senior competitors and with full respect for our contemporaries and juniors, we have a quest of retaining the faith of our fast growing readership base with projection of undiluted truth. In this expedition, we have understandably paid a price. We are mature enough to realize that privileges and professionalism can not travel together. Our disinclination to toe the establishment’s line has cost us enormously in terms of material dividends but it alone has, in turn, catapulted your newspaper to enviable pinnacles in the domain of fourth estate in Jammu and Kashmir. Men, and women, in corridors of power read our phrases and metaphors literally and, sometimes biologically, and did what many monarchs and dictators have done with this noble profession for centuries. Rather than hypocritical soothsayers, we chose to act and express like blunt well-wishers. History and our archives do bear us out in our proud claim that we refused to become agents of any political group or ideology—perhaps without parallels in entire media community in the state. We understandably became the target. Government’s advertisement support remains completely frozen, albeit without any formal executive order since July 1st 2010. Lakhs and Crores of our country’s taxpayers’ money, on the other hand, went in largesse to even those who are on oath to break away J&K and make it a part of Pakistan. Privileges at their disposal run into infinity. Town-criers of the establishment’s propaganda vehicle are equal beneficiaries of the largesse. Without calling it a ‘Banana Republic’, we have realized that commitment to the peoples’ cause, to principles of professionalism, to nationalism and patriotism are veritable liabilities and disqualifications as long as media is governed by the rulers little sensitive to such noble ideals and values.
No stone was left unturned in dismantling this empire of the freedom of expression in the last two years. That includes raids on our business concerns, implication of staff in fabricated cases, arrest of our employees, seizure of our newspaper office and printing press over flimsy grounds . What Goenka faced at the hands of tyranny in 1970s, was in store for us in J&K decades later. On occasion of launching the full-size 12-page daily from today, we assure all of you patrons that Early Times will continue its war against poverty, corruption, favouritism, nepotism, anti-nationalism misuse of official positions by men and women in power however mighty and tyrant. We, once again, acknowledge the support of our ordinary readers in taking us to the top of the domain with their valued support and cooperation. Many more innovations in making Early Times your complete and ideal newspaper are in the pipeline.
___Editor
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