Srinagar, Nov. 5 -- News is no longer produced only in newsrooms. Narratives are no longer shaped only by journalists. Public opinion is no longer formed through established institutions. Today, a social media account can influence debate, trigger outrage, spread misinformation or challenge authority with a reach that once belonged exclusively to major media organisations. As the government prepares a new media policy for Jammu and Kashmir, it faces a question far larger than regulation itself: can accountability be enforced without placing public discourse under watch?

That question matters because social media has fundamentally altered the relationship between power and information. Governments no longer control the pace of communicati...