India bars Pulitzer-winning photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo from flying to receive award
The photojournalist who won a Pulitzer, Irshad Mattoo, said immigration authorities stopped her in New Delhi from boarding a flight to New York to receive her award.
“I was on my way to receive the Pulitzer award in New York, but I was stopped at immigration at Delhi airport and barred from travelling internationally despite holding a valid U.S. visa and ticket,” Ms Mattoo tweeted on Tuesday.
Ms Mattoo, from Kashmir, was part of the four journalists working for Reuters who won the Pulitzer for their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July, Ms Mattoo was stopped at the same airport while on her way to Paris for a book launch and photography exhibition. She told Al Jazeera that she was scheduled to travel to Paris from New Delhi for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of the ten winners of the Serendipity Arles Grant 2020.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the restriction on her movement, calling India’s actions “arbitrary and excessive”.
“There is no reason why Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo, who had all the right travel documents and has won a Pulitzer – one of the most prestigious journalism awards – should have been prevented from travelling abroad,” Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator said in a statement on Wednesday.
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