The reign of impunity in South Asia: 22 journalists killed
South Asia was not a safe place for journalists in the year 2013 either as violence against media personnel with impunity continued to remain a major threat to media freedom.
Killings
Despite UN Security Council Resolution 1738 on the safety of journalists and several international resolutions on the protection of journalists, lives continued to have been lost in South Asia in the course of journalists doing their jobs with the year 2013 toll being 22. The country with the largest number of journalists killed in connection with their work was Pakistan (10), followed by India (8), Afghanistan (3) and Bangladesh (1). Courtesy these killings, Pakistan and India have made it to the shameful club of the world’s five deadliest countries for the media.
Unpunished crimes
Except for a couple of killings having been taken up in the courts in Nepal, the culture of impunity -- the perpetrators of killings not being investigated or brought to justice -- seemed to have taken root. Cases have been marred by delays, the deaths of witnesses, and threats to the plaintiffs in a bid to have them drop charges. Unpunished crimes are jeering at major democracies of the region and depriving their people of the right to information. And so, fear is deeply entrenching in families of those killed and in societies.
Threats and violence forced a growing number of journalists to flee their homes or country. There have been several instances of harassment and violence against journalists during protests.
Warmongering
A major section of media in South Asia, more so in India than in Pakistan, remained indulged in conflict insensitive journalism and in doing so, putting pressure on the governments of the two countries to go for war rather than peace.
Intolerance for diversity
Other factors having a bearing on media freedom and quality journalism in the region were intolerance for diverse points of views as edicts and threats were hurled at the media.
Crunch time
In some of the smaller South Asian countries financial viability has always been a challenge. But even in the large countries, there have been huge layoffs unsettling the optimism of the last decade of rapid growth in the media and causing livelihood anxieties for journalists.
Layoffs and working conditions
Journalists still struggle for fair wages and decent working conditions. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal principally, established laws on the protection of living standards are being breached with little consequence. In other countries such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Afghanistan, the struggle is underway for securing protections under the law for the wages and working conditions of the media people.
Transparency
Transparency in ownership and editorial functioning and accountability and credible modes of regulation came up as major issues.
Ban on YouTube
As a welcome development in June, Bangladesh lifted a ban on video-sharing site YouTube in place since September 2012 after an online anti-Islam movie spawned violent protests across the Muslim world.
The ban was hurting thousands of people who use YouTube for good purposes such as educational or research. But impeding the public right to freedom of expression and access to information, YouTube continued to remain blocked in Pakistan.
SAMC call
The SAMC calls on the governments of South Asia to address the issue of violence against the media by bringing perpetrators of past crimes to justice. Also, the media owners as well as journalists themselves will have to fight impunity as a fight of the people.
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan was preparing for presidential and provincial council elections in 2014, and the withdrawal of international troops. Despite having moved up 22 places to 128 on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, 2013, Afghanistan saw a sharp increase in violence and threats against journalists by local officials, police and the Taliban.
Two journalists -- Mohammad Nasim Turak in the eastern Laghman province and Mohammad Hassin Hashemi in the northeastern Kapisa Valley -- and an Indian diarist -- Sushmita Banerjee in Kharana -- were killed in the war-ravaged country in 2013. As many as 23 journalists have been murdered during the past two decades in Afghanistan, but their killers - with the exception of two cases - continue to enjoy impunity.
At least two writers were forced to flee Afghanistan in 2013 after receiving death threats.
The killings and death threats demonstrate the major challenges facing journalists and freedom of speech in Afghanistan and the urgency to find ways to provide journalists with protection.
Besides violence and threats against journalists in Afghanistan, there were calls by government officials for the censorship of certain news media.
The government’s attitude toward media was mixed and inconsistent, driven more by individuals than a broad or coherent policy. President Hamid Karzai agreed to a call by the country’s religious council to crack down on television stations, calling some of their programmes “immoral and un-Islamic.” At another meeting between the president and the Ulema council of clerics in April, broadcasters were accused by the council of “promoting prostitution.”
The media faced increased financial challenges and growing restrictions with regards to access to information.
With more than 400 outlets now, Afghanistan’s media have grown rapidly in recent years. However, with the withdrawal of international troops in 2014 and the resultant decrease in funding, the Afghan media will need to become more self sustaining through advertising or go for closure.
If the situation becomes chaotic, Afghans working for foreign and local media could become targets for retribution for their work as journalists.
Afghan authorities should respect freedom of expression and protect journalists. The presidential candidates should have the safety of journalists as one of their priorities.
BANGLADESH
Bangladesh moved down 15 places to 144 on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index 2013. A blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death near his home in Dhaka and four bloggers were detained on charges of posting “false, indecent or defamatory” information and “hurting religious sentiments” in their blogs. One blogger, Asif Mohiuddin, required medical treatment while in jail resulting from the effects of stab wounds he received in a murder attempt in January.
The media are aligned with one or the other of Bangladesh’s two squabbling political dynasties – headed by Sheikh Hasina, now prime minister, and Khaleda Zia, the former prime minister and opposition leader. With elections due next year, the battle lines are hardening.
Several journalists were attacked during protests and a raid on a press club. The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission ordered two stations, Diganta Television and Islamic TV to stop broadcasting. The television stations were shut down after they broadcast live images of the security forces’ attacks against hardline Islamist demonstrators.
The government also shut down Amar Desh, the country’s biggest-circulation pro-opposition paper on April 11 and had its editor Mahmudur Rahman locked up. Rahman said he was tortured in custody, which the government denied.
The media in Bangladesh did have some solace when a court handed down life sentences to eight of the 10 people accused of plotting journalist Goutam Das’s murder. Das, who at the time of his death was the Faridpur district correspondent for the Dhaka-based Bengali daily ‘Samakaal’, wrote a series of reports in 2005 exposing corruption by local businessmen connected with the then-ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
BHUTAN
Reporters Without Borders placed Bhutan’s state of press freedom at 82nd, 12 places down in the rung from last year’s 70th position. Bhutan’s ranking in the Press Freedom Index had increased steadily since 2008 until 2010. Since 2011 it has been decreasing from 70 in 2011-2012 and to 82 out of 179 countries in 2013.
Observers attribute the drop in the ranking to ‘restrained’ news because of the media’s heavy reliance on the government for revenue and to the lack of a right to information act in the country.
In 2006, as Bhutan prepared for the arrival of democracy, a strong, vibrant and responsible media was deemed vital to keep people informed and to encourage their active participation in the country’s politics. Now that the country has had its second democratic government in place, its 12 newspapers, six radio stations and one television channel are in despair, shrinking, becoming smaller and fast losing their staff after the authorities have told all government agencies to cut down on advertising in thrift.
INDIA
The number of journalists killed in the line of duty in India went up from three in 2011 and five in 2012, to eight in 2013 -- six from Uttar Pradesh and two from Chhattisgarh. No arrests have been made for any of the killings that are indicative of intolerance to alternative ideas and opinions and the impunity the attackers enjoy, often with the complicity of lawmen. The deaths show up how perilous the working conditions of the journalists are. Except for two, the killed journalists were stringers and had little or no formal organizational support.
An acid attack on a journalist in Parbhani, Maharashtra, and an attempt to burn alive another journalist in Kolkata, West Bengal were part of the 19 instances of attacks on journalists in 2013. Of these, four attacks came from political parties while in seven instances the media was targeted while covering protests. Police and security forces too were guilty of rarely-punished violence and threats against journalists, forcing them to censor themselves and stick to safe topics.
Restrictions on print and broadcast media ranged from police cases against editors to gags on the media in Kashmir in the wake of the hanging of Afzal Guru.
Vigilante groups managed to get their way to curb any free expression aided, at times, by pliant law enforcing authorities.
In November, India was riveted by a case that might reveal the sordid reality of workplace harassment. Tarun Tejpal, the former editor-in-chief of Tehelka stepped down as editor for six months after a woman colleague accused him of sexual assault.
MALDIVES
Political instability, resulting in threats and physical attacks on journalists and staff purges, makes it difficult to produce independent news and information. Maldives (103rd, -30) fell sharply after President Muhammad Nasheed’s removal in an alleged coup, followed by threats and attacks on journalists regarded as his supporters.
In the run-up to the elections that have sprung up Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom as President of the Republic of Maldives, there have been several instances of persecution of the opposition television station Raajje TV. Ever since Nasheed’s ouster in February 2012, the TV had been banned from the president's news conferences and denied police protection during demonstrations. In an arson attack the station’s premises were gutted. Then the Supreme Court told the police to investigate its CEO and news department chief over a supposedly "offensive" report about the judicial system that the station broadcast.
Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) said media persons faced numerous problems, in particular while covering political protests organised by the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
Ibrahim Waheed Aswad, news head of the Rajje TV channel, was hit on the head with an iron rod. He suffered serious injuries to the head and face. Just prior to this incident, two women in senior editorial and reporting functions as the Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Aishath Liza and Aminath Saani, were assaulted in the city and a packet full of a corrosive industrial fluid thrown at them. Both suffered burn injuries, including to their faces. The three journalists had been receiving threats through social media sites and other modes of communication.
With the installation of the new government, there is hope things will improve with the authorities in the Maldives bringing those responsible for the attacks to account, and taking immediate steps to ensure the safety of journalists.
NEPAL
The constituent assembly elections were held on November 19 2013 and National Congress is likely to lead the government in Nepal.
In the days leading to the polls, there was an upsurge in press freedom violations and incidents against freedom of expression impacting several journalists. As in the past, journalists and media outlets were at the receiving end vis-a-vis the political turmoil.
In different regions, media persons were badly assaulted by political parties, security persons, government officials, businessmen, ethnic communities and leaders and unknown gangs. The Nepali media were intimidated with frequent attacks, threats, death threats, manhandling, vandalism, and the torching of newspapers.
Newspapers were targeted during a strike, which was called by 33 parties led by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M), a splinter group from the UCPN-M. Newspaper distribution was badly affected throughout the country, especially after stones were thrown at the trucks carrying newspapers.
The CPN-M wrote to media outlets in Myagdi, a hilly district in the western region of Nepal, instructing them to stop disseminating news about the elections, or face the consequences.
Twenty-two journalists fled Dailekh district after death threats made by cadres of the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal (UCPN), halting production at two daily newspapers and one weekly. Those behind the threats also ransacked the premises of the daily Hamro Tesro Aankha.
These acts of violence were attempts to gag news providers in a country ranked 118th out of 179 countries in the 2013 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
Though the issue of impunity for crimes against journalists remained a systemic problem in Nepal, there were some welcome moves.
Police said they arrested the alleged mastermind in the 2009 murder of Nepalese journalist Uma Singh. They said Umesh Yadav, a former Maoist, was about to cross the border into India when arrested.
A court slapped a jail term on the attackers of a journalist Khilnath Dhakal, a reporter with the Nagarik daily, from Biratnagar, in eastern Nepal.
A court sentenced Yuvraj Giri to life imprisonment and the confiscation of all his properties in the 2012 murder of journalist Yadav Poudel, a reporter with Rajdhani daily and Avenues Television.
PAKISTAN
Ten journalists were killed in Pakistan in the year 2013 earning the country the tag of being one of the world's deadliest five countries for media personnel. Pakistan is ranked 159th out of 179 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Journalists in Balochistan and the Tribal Areas were mainly the targets of intimidation and violence with impunity sustaining the climate of terror.
Balochistan remained the most dangerous province for journalists in 2013, where four journalists were killed. Journalists in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas are sandwiched between militants and law enforcement agencies; publishing the statement of any of them means inviting the ire from the other.
Salik Ali Jafri, a GEO news journalist, was killed in twin bomb explosions in Karachi, on November 22.
Ayub Khan Khattak, 42, a reporter of Karak Times, was shot dead, in Karak district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhuwa province on October 11.
The mutilated body of Balochistan-based journalist Haji Abdul Razzak was found on August 21 in Karachi. Missing since March 24, Razzak was tortured to death.
Ahmed Ali Joiya, 25, a reporter in Bahawalnagar district of Punjab province was shot dead on May 24.
Tariq Aslam of the daily Pakistan was killed in a suicide blast at Peshawar on April 16.
Mehmood Ahmed Afridi of the daily Intikhab was murdered in Kalat, Balochistan on May 1.
Malik Mumtaz of Jang Group was murdered on February 27.
Imran Shaikh and Saif ur Rehman of Samaa TV and Mohammad Iqbal of NNI News Agency were killed in a suicide blast in Quetta on January 10. Three journalists suffered injuries in the bomb blast.
Pakistan has one of the world's worst records of prosecuting anti-press violence in which 58 journalists have been killed here since 2002 by militants, criminals, and warlords, but also by political and intelligence operatives.
As an example, the case of Wali Khan Babar, a correspondent for Geo TV who was shot on a busy street in Karachi in January 2011 has been derailed by threats, intimidation, and murders of key figures in the investigation. Five witnesses or law enforcement officials connected to the case have been murdered, and two prosecutors were fired without explanation.
Media freedom in Pakistan during 2013 also remained constrained by the high level of violence against media outlets, products and personnel.
Express offices came under a shooting attack. The building houses two daily newspapers and a TV station in Karachi on August 16.
TV reporter Zafar Wazir's home came under and a bomb attack in South Waziristan, in the northwestern Tribal Areas, on August 11.
In Sindh, the workers of Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) set fire to copies of the leading English-Language newspaper daily Dawn and barred the hawkers from distributing copies of the paper for what they said being neglected by the paper.
In Karachi, some unidentified men entered the bureau office of the Urdu-Language newspaper daily Tawar and burned records and archives before leaving the place.
In a suspected arson attack, the offices of the Independent News Pakistan (INP) news agency were reduced to ashes on morning of April 28, 2013.
The lack of a more mature class of media professionals and emergence of illiberal voices hampered the freedom of speech. The situation is threatening to smother open discussion and thwart the progress of democratic development.
A year-old fatwa or edict naming certain Pakistani media and journalists as “enemies of the Mujahideen” was re-issued on Oct 19 in the form of a post on Twitter greatly increasing the dangers to which they are already exposed.
The same fatwa was issued a year ago, shortly after the Taliban attack on the teenage activist Malala Yousufzai. A group that supports the outlawed coalition Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for reissuing it. The TTP itself denied any role but did not dispute its message.
The fatwa accused the media of promoting secularism and western values in their coverage of the war on terror and said that by refusing to use the term “martyr”, they were portraying the Taliban as terrorists and enemies of peace.
Internet freedom too faced restrictions in the year 2013. Pakistan ranked among the bottom 10 countries in the Freedom on the Net 2013 report, which measured the level of internet and digital media freedom in 60 countries.
More than a year after the authorities blocked access to the video-sharing platform YouTube in response to the release of The Innocence of Muslims, a film considered blasphemous by many in the Muslim world, the ban is yet to be lifted.
SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka is classified by Reporters Without Borders as a country “under surveillance” because of its violations of freedom of expression and is ranked 162nd out of 179 countries in its 2013 press freedom index.
Such a perilous climate of press freedom is there in the country that despite the killing or forced disappearance of at least 39 media workers and bombing and burning of media institutions, not a single perpetrator has been brought to justice. The threats to media include killings and disappearances, physical attacks, verbal intimidation and threats of reprisals -- often the precursor to acts of physical violence -- and the constant danger of police action. The situation has forced more than 80 journalists to flee the country.
Recently, senior journalist, Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema, co-editor of the Sunday Leader, and her husband Romesh Abeywickrema, business editor of the Sunday Leader, left the country after an armed attack on their home. Media watchdogs are highly suspicious as the army spokesman was compelled to officially admit that at least two of the attackers were soldiers attached to Sri Lankan army.
In recent years, the government has through loyal businessmen been seeking to directly control media organisations by buying them up, or conferring some undue privileges on them. A number of websites publishing critical political commentary have been blocked and their staff violently attacked.
An army crackdown on peaceful protests near the western town of Weliweriya against the contamination of drinking water in the area resulted in the death of three protesters and injuries to 15 journalists.
Tamil newspaper Uthayan was repeatedly attacked in firing and arson. Sri Lanka’s only provincially produced Jaffna based newspaper has been the target of violence for several years, with 8 workers having been killed and attacked more than 37 times since 2002. While all these crimes were committed in an extremely militarised area, no one so far has been brought to book.
Sunday Leader journalist Faraz Shauketaly was seriously injured after three gunmen broke into his house and opened fire from close range. The 54-year-old journalist was rushed to hospital where doctors successfully removed a bullet from his neck.
The Sri Lankan government wielded its influence abroad also. It pressured the organizers of a film festival in Nepal through the Ministry of Information and Communications in Nepal not to screen three Sri Lankan documentaries, the festival Chairman Kanak Mani Dixit said. The films document the civil war and the atrocities committed during the conflict in Sri Lanka.
In June 2013, the Ministry of Mass Media and Information introduced a document titled "Code of Media Ethics" in the parliament. Media commentary in Sri Lanka sees this move as a prelude to enforcing an intrusive set of norms that could worsen the environment for free journalistic practice.
With all this, the reign of impunity continues.
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