http://asiapacific.ifj.org/assets/docs/079/011/9b8c64f-79d470b.pdf
May 2009
IFJ annual report documents alarming trends in journalists' safety, press
freedom
Press Freedom Under Fire in South Asia, 2008-09
IFJ and SAMSN Release Seventh Annual Report
(IFJ/IFEX) - May 1, 2009 - The seventh annual report on press freedom in
South Asia, produced by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
for the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN), documents alarming
trends in working conditions for journalists, typified by greatly increased
risks to physical safety, rising job insecurity and a commercial
environment that tends to undermine many ethical norms.
Under Fire: Press Freedom in South Asia 2008-2009 will be officially
launched by the IFJ and SAMSN at UNESCO's Media and Dialogue regional
conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, on World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
The report notes that after years of buoyant growth, only restrained in
some cases by politics, such as the two-year state of "emergency" in
Bangladesh, media industries in the region are now confronting the fallout
of the global economic downturn.
Job losses in journalism are undermining professional morale in a region
where physical threats are already taking a serious toll.
Under Fire catalogues a number of cases of journalists being killed in the
region. Statistically, the figures are in keeping with long-period averages
in most countries. But a relative deterioration is evident in:
- a spike in violent incidents reported from India, which has been in
relative terms a more secure environment for journalism;
- the impunity with which journalists have been killed in Sri Lanka, Nepal
and Pakistan; and
- the continuing failure of State authorities in any of these countries to
bring to justice the murderers of journalists.
At the same time, there is a tendency for State authorities in all
countries to use legal provisions dealing with exceptional situations, such
as "terrorism" and "sedition", to prosecute or intimidate journalists.
The regulatory environment in most countries of South Asia remains
ill-defined, especially for the rapidly growing electronic media. In
several countries, opposing political parties and civil society actors
ensure that there are few accepted standards in the observance of the free
speech right.
India, despite its long and well-established journalistic traditions,
continues to be convulsed by debates on ethics. Concerns about the coverage
of middle-class crime and terrorism have led to greater public
interrogation of the media.
In Pakistan, journalists have utilised their new freedoms to deeply
question the quality of the democratic transition that was inaugurated in
the country in 2008. Several dissonances have arisen in the process,
heightened by the global power-game being played out in Pakistan and its
immediate neighbourhood. The consequence is growing hostility toward free
and fair reporting.
Journalists in Sri Lanka have suffered the worst adversities by all
standards, considerably more serious than even the travails that
counterparts in Pakistan have faced. The daylight murder of one of the
country's best-known editors, the abduction-style arrest of another and the
continuing prosecution of still another on charges of terrorism represent a
new low for a country that is perhaps approaching the climactic stages of a
quarter century-long civil war.
A new spirit of contention has gripped Nepal, after the seeming placidity
of the first few months of the country's transition to democracy. Since
nation-wide elections to the Constituent Assembly early in 2008 and the
swearing in of a new elected government under the leadership of the
Maoists, conditions for journalism have deteriorated. This has represented
a very poor reward for the media community, which spearheaded the movement
against monarchical absolutism and contributed in a significant way to the
restoration of democracy in 2006.
As Afghanistan heads toward national elections later in 2009, the situation
for journalism is seriously muddled. The media has become an arena where
armed groups contest fiercely for political space. As elections approach,
this is a potentially explosive issue for a public that believes that the
media should be a source of information, rather than a tool of propaganda.
All other countries in the region are, in their own ways, undergoing the
pangs of transition. Bangladesh went in for nation-wide elections during
the year and a democratic government is now in authority, purportedly
committed to media rights and the public right to information. But the
first few months of the transition have been rocky and there is a serious
risk that with attention diverted toward curbing sources of turbulence, the
legislative effort on matters of essential importance to journalism could
be banished to obscurity.
Meanwhile, Bhutan continues its transition from absolute monarchy. Voices
are raised against the powers that have been assumed by newly created
regulatory institutions. And the problems relating to ethnic groups that
have been expelled from the country continue to fester. However, with
Bhutan's relatively peaceable political atmosphere, there is optimism that
these issues will be sorted out without serious disharmony.
The overall prognosis of Under Fire is gloomy. An urgent requirement is for
journalists' unions and associations in the region to unite on the basis of
agreed principles, to establish the foundations for a shared discourse on
press freedom, which could be the precursor for a larger project to bring
peace to a region that is torn by deep internal turmoil.
To access the full report, see:
http://asiapacific.ifj.org/assets/docs/079/011/9b8c64f-79d470b.pdf
To access the report annex, Incidents of Press Freedom Violations by
Country, May 2008-April 2009, see:
http://asiapacific.ifj.org/assets/docs/236/151/a0107ec-516e497.pdf
The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries.
For further information, contact IFJ Asia-Pacific, tel: +612 9333 0919,
e-mail: ifj@ifj-asia.org, or the IFJ, International Press Centre, Residence
Palace, Block C, 155 Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium, tel: +322 235
2200 / 2207, fax: +322 235 2219, e-mail: ernest.sagaga@ifj.org, Internet:
http://www.ifj.org/