Major News Organisations to Cover Kasmir Elections

New Delhi, Sept. 15 2002 (INS News) -- Major international TV networks included CNN and BBC, besides other news organisations have descended on the Kashmir valley for extensive coverage of the assembly polls starting tomorrow.

As many as 400 journalists from international, national an local media organisations are expected to cover the internationally important state elections.

BBC has the largest contingent of 19 persons followed by CNN's 13-member strong team, official sources told PTI here.

While presence of electronic media could be felt everywhere in the valley with crewmen going around with their cameras and equipment, the print journalists are also keeping a close eye on the minutest of the details of the elections.

"We have given accreditation to nearly 220 journalists, 174 from national and 40 from international media. These accreditations are exclusive of those granted to the local media," officials said.

Besides BBC, the international news organisations include The New York Times, The Blade, ABC TV (Australia), Time Magazine, AP TV, Iran TV, ABC News (USA), AFP (Paris), NHK (Japan), CBS News, Associated TV, IRIB (Tehran), First German TV, Middle East B'casting Corp, NZZ (Switzerland), CNN, Reuters, Akahata (Japan) and IRNA (Iran).

-- Sam Asharaf - South Asia Correspondent in Trivandrum, India
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