“In most countries in the region the past year has been less lethal for journalists than earlier years. But the deteriorating situation in Pakistan is of urgent concern, as are widespread forms of official and unofficial suppression of media reporting,” said Jacqueline Park, director for Asia-Pacific region at the International Federation of Journalists, the publisher of the report, in a statement. “The killing of Osama bin Laden on May 1 and the recent popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa may also present fresh challenges to journalists and media professionals in South Asia.”
The report, “Free Speech in Peril: Press Freedom in South Asia 2010-11” notes that in all of the eight countries it looked at in the region “the challenges of securing decent wages and working conditions remain, while various forms of official and official censorship are in play.” The report says that the rising concern with profits among media in the region is also leading to erosion of the values of sound journalism. The report covered the period from May 2010 to April 2011.
India, which is home to the most developed media industry in South Asia, has the “deepest traditions of safeguarding the rights to free speech and information” but it has not “always been able to set an example to be emulated in terms of media practice,” the report says. Other than the threat posed by the practice of “paid news” the ongoing “conflicts and insurgencies in north-eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir and the central Indian Maoist-insurgency region continue to cast a long shadow over journalism,” the report notes. India continues to be the eighth deadliest country in the world for journalists , according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In Afghanistan, journalism remains a dangerous pursuit due to the ongoing insurgency there, the report says. “Most media outlets require some form of subventions for survival, either from international donor agencies or local power cliques,” the report mentions.
“Investments in safety remain an area of priority for Pakistan’s journalists, though few among the media groups seem inclined to make the necessary commitments of resources,” the report says.
In Bangladesh, the reports notes media outlets were shut down in 2010 by “arbitrary impositions of the law” and “governmental authorities issued frequent warnings about their intent to enforce a code of ethics for journalism.”
Media in smaller countries of the region like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives are having relatively better time, the report says. Sri Lanka and Nepal both are emerging out of years of internal conflicts and media groups there are adjusting to the renewed scenarios, the report notes. Both Bhutan and Maldives “face the difficulties of sustaining plural media in the context of modestly developed business infrastructure and lo
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