South Asia Media Solidarity Network Bulletin - January 2011

Welcome to the monthly e-bulletin of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN). The next bulletin will be sent on February 15, 2010 and inputs are most welcome. We encourage contributions to let others know what you are doing; to seek solidarity and support from other SAMSN members; and to find out what others are doing in the region.

In this bulletin:
1. Journalism Under Attack in Pakistan
2. Death Threats Against Journalists in India’s Chhattisgarh State
3. Two New IFJ Reports Released
4. Eminent Pakistani Journalist Minhaj Barna Honoured
5. Attack on Journalist Covering Sri Lanka Floods
6. Concern Over Government Influence on Maldives Media, Intimidation of Interviewees
7. Two Pakistan Channels Fined for Breaches in Assassination Coverage
8. Wage Board Report Submitted for Indian Journalists
9. Applications Invited – Maldives College of Higher Education, Dart Fellowship

1. Journalism Under Attack in Pakistan
SAMSN partner, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) expressed outrage as two journalists were killed in the first two weeks of 2011, following a horror year in 2010 in which 15 journalists were killed in the country. Ilyas Nazar, who was found dead in Pidarak, Balochistan province on January 5, was a journalist with the Baloch language magazine Darwanth. On January 14, the bullet-riddled body of Wali Khan Babar, a reporter for Geo News channel was found in the Liaqatabad neighbourhood of Karachi, in close proximity to the office of the local police chief. Babar’s death is being reported as a case of targeted killing while investigations are yet to establish the motives behind Nazar’s murder.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-demands-inquiry-as-another-journalist-killed-in-balochistan; and http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=3291&Cat=13&dt=1/14/2011.

2. Death Threats Against Journalists in India’s Chhattisgarh State
The IFJ has joined the working journalists’ union in India’s Chhattisgarh state and other SAMSN partners in denouncing the implicit death threat made against three journalists in an unsigned letter circulated on December 11, purportedly from a body for the advancement of indigenous communities. The letter commends a police official for his role in combating a long-running Maoist insurgency in the southern district of Dantewada in the state. The letter identifies three local journalists by name and warns them that they cannot live for long "under the garb of human rights" and would meet a "dog's death" if they did not leave the region. The journalists mentioned are N.R.K. Pillay, vice-president of the state-wide union of working journalists, the Chhattisgarh Shramjeevi Patrakar Sangh (CSPS), Anil Mishra, former district correspondent of the Hindi language daily Nai Duniya, and Yashwant Yadav of Deshbandhu, a widely-read and respected Hindi daily in the state.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-death-threats-against-journalists-in-india-s-chhattisgarh-state

3. Two New IFJ Reports Released
Freedom in Solidarity: Media Working for Peace in South Asia, an IFJ report on collective action for media freedom, written in collaboration with SAMSN partners in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is now available in six languages. The English original of the report and translations in Bengali; Hindi; Nepali; Sinhala; and Tamil are now available online. An Urdu translation is also available and can be requested by contacting the IFJ at ifj@ifj-asia.org.

The IFJ also announces the release of a new report titled Reporting for All: Challenges for the Media in Nepal’s Democratic Transition, available online now. The report has been prepared in partnership with the Federation of Nepali Journalists and other SAMSN partners in Nepal, and is the outcome of a year-long project which involved media monitoring, training workshops and focus group discussions with a wide cross-section of the country’s journalists. The report is available in both English and Nepali.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/pages/ifj-asia-pacific-reports


4. Homage to Eminent Pakistani Journalist Minhaj Barna
The IFJ and SAMSN partners joined the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and other associates in Pakistan in paying homage to Minhaj Mohammad Khan Barna, legendary journalist and fighter for press freedom, who died on January 14 aged 85. Barna was actively associated with the PFUJ from its early days and served several terms as its president and was the founding chairman of the All Pakistan Newspaper Employees’ Confederation. As a journalist, he worked in a number of Pakistan’s leading dailies, both Urdu and English, and served as a foreign correspondent in London and New York.
See: http://tribune.com.pk/story/103759/mihaj-barna-founding-member-of-pakistans-print-media-dies/
5. Attack on Journalist Covering Sri Lanka Floods
SAMSN partners in Sri Lanka report that P.M.M.A Cader, a senior journalist with the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited was assaulted by an elected official of the Kalmunai Municipal Council, in the Ampara district in the country’s Eastern province on January 4. The attack came after Cader’s refusal to change his reporting of flood relief efforts to reflect the official version of events provided by a Sri Lanka Muslim Congress politician. No arrest has been made for the assault as yet.

See: http://nfrsrilanka.blogspot.com/2011/01/assault-on-tamil-media-personnel.html

6. Concern Over Government Influence on Maldives Media, Intimidation of Interviewees
SAMSN partner the Maldives Journalists’ Association (MJA) expressed concern over government misuse of state-owned media outlets in the lead up to the country’s local council elections in February. According to MJA reports, the Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation has been supportive of the country’s ruling party and its candidates. The MJA has also raised concerns over a disturbing trend for protests targeting interview subjects outside media outlets VTV, DhiTV and MNBC One. The protests have seen many interviewees leave the broadcasters under a police escort, which the MJA believes is an affront to freedom of expression as enshrined in the Maldives constitution.

See: http://mja.org.mv/index.php/news/153-regarding-the-local-councils-elections and http://www.mja.org.mv/index.php/news/154-concern-on-challenges-faced-to-media

7. Two Pakistan Channels Fined for Breaches in Assassination Coverage
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has fined two of the country’s news channels, Samaa and Waqt TV, for coverage of a recent political assassination that it has held to be contrary to the norms of fair and responsible news reporting. The channels have been held liable for PKR (Pakistan rupees) 1 million each, for allegedly inciting violence and promoting acts of terror by among other things, repeatedly airing an interview with the man presently being held for the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer on January 4.

See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12186897

8. Wage Board Report Submitted for Indian Journalists
SAMSN partners in India are preparing for the next phase of negotiation and struggle after submission of the report of the wage board constituted under national law for determination of the wages of working journalists. The report, and another dealing with non-journalists working in the newspaper industry, were submitted on December 31 by G.R. Majithia, a retired judge of an Indian high court, who chaired both the boards. Indian unions have reacted cautiously to the report, welcoming some of its provisions and calling for improvements in others.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-welcomes-new-wage-award-for-india-s-journalists-and-calls-for-full-compliance

9. Applications Invited – Maldives College of Higher Education, Dart Fellowship
The Faculty of the Arts in the Maldives College of Higher Education is seeking to recruit a lecturer to handle its diploma course in journalism. The selected candidate will report to the Dean of the Faculty and will be responsible for instruction of students in the second year of a two-year diploma program. The topics of interest include news reporting and writing, journalism law and ethics, radio reporting and television reporting. One position for a period of one year or two positions for six months each would be available.

See: http://www.mche.edu.mv

Applications are also invited for the Dart Asia Fellowship for 2011 awarded by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. The fellowship is intended to promote responsible and credible reporting on violent and traumatic events — on street crime, family violence, natural disasters and accidents, civil unrest, war and genocide.

See: http://dartcenter.org/content/new-dart-asia-fellowships

ENDS