Onlykashmir.in News Desk
A 13 member media delegation from Kerala has begun a seven day press tour of Jammu and Kashmir, running from September 6 to 12, offering visiting journalists a firsthand look at the developmental initiatives and infrastructure projects reshaping the Union Territory in recent years.
The tour has been organised by the Press Information Bureau, Kochi, with the stated objective of giving Kerala based journalists direct exposure to ground realities in Jammu and Kashmir rather than relying solely on secondhand reporting or official briefings from Delhi. Such cross regional press tours have increasingly become a tool used by the government to encourage journalists from other parts of the country to engage directly with regions like Kashmir, whose coverage in the national media has historically been shaped heavily by security and conflict narratives.
On the opening day of the tour, the delegation visited the Press Information Bureau office in Srinagar, where Director Quazi Salman welcomed the visiting journalists and walked them through the media and communication landscape of Kashmir. Salman’s briefing is understood to have covered the functioning of PIB in the region, giving the delegation an institutional grounding before they proceed to visit specific project sites and locations over the remainder of the week.
Later on the first day, the delegation travelled to Gulmarg, the well known hill station in Baramulla district, where members experienced the region’s natural landscape and scenic beauty firsthand. The choice of Gulmarg as an early stop reflects both its standing as one of Kashmir’s most recognisable destinations and its symbolic value in showcasing the valley’s tourism appeal to visiting journalists who may go on to write about the region for audiences back home in Kerala.
Over the remaining days of the tour, the delegation is expected to visit a range of developmental projects and significant locations across the Union Territory, with organisers framing the itinerary around familiarising participants with the pace of infrastructural and developmental transformation underway in Jammu and Kashmir. The tour is also expected to include structured interactions with local stakeholders, giving journalists an opportunity to engage directly with officials and residents rather than observe projects from a distance.
The initiative fits within PIB’s broader mandate of facilitating wider awareness and more informed reporting on significant developmental initiatives being undertaken across different regions of the country, a strategy that has seen similar press tours organised for journalists from other states in recent years as part of efforts to build a more geographically diverse understanding of Jammu and Kashmir’s ongoing transformation.
