South Asia Media Solidarity Network eBulletin- June 15, 2011

Welcome to the monthly e-bulletin of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN). The next bulletin will be sent on July 15, 2011 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.

To contribute, email ifj@ifj-asia.org

SAMSN is a group of journalists’ trade unions, press freedom organisations and journalists in South Asia that have agreed to work together to support freedom of expression and association in the region. SAMSN was formed at a meeting of these groups in Kathmandu, Nepal, in September 2004. The group agreed to stand in solidarity and work together for media reform, for an independent pluralist media and to build public respect for the work of journalists in the region.

For further information on SAMSN, visit www.ifj-asia.org/page/samsn.html

1. Syed Saleem Shahzad, investigative journalist, murdered in Pakistan

Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad went missing on the evening of May 29 as he left his home in the national capital Islamabad to visit a TV studio for a talk show recording. International organisations wrote urgently to Pakistani authorities to locate him amid rumours he had been taken into custody by Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). His body was discovered on May 31, bearing scars of torture. SAMSN partner the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has launched a nation-wide campaign demanding a judicial probe into the killing. The PFUJ has rejected the June 14 decision appointing the Federal Shariat Court’s (FSC) judicial commission to investigate Saleem Shahzad’s murder and continues to demand the commission be headed by a Supreme Court justice.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/international-organisations-send-urgent-appeal-to-pakistan-leaders;
http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-demands-pakistan-bring-journalists-killers-to-justice; http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/pakistan-must-set-up-shahzad-judicial-commission-by-june-10; and http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-looks-forward-to-pakistan-judicial-commission-report

2. Widespread outrage as journalist murdered in India

Jyotirmoy Dey, special investigations editor for the afternoon daily Midday, was shot dead in broad daylight in the western Indian city Mumbai on June 11. The veteran crime reporter had filed numerous stories exposing rivalries between competing criminal syndicates in the city, and the complicity of certain elements in the police force and other state agencies in criminal activities. Mumbai’s journalists have launched a campaign demanding an inquiry by the police agency controlled by India’s central government, since they allege that an impartial investigation by city police is not possible.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/shock-and-outrage-at-murder-of-senior-journalist-in-mumbai

3. Life sentences awarded for murder of two journalists in Nepal

SAMSN partners have welcomed the life sentences handed down to two accused each in the murders of Nepali journalists Birendra Sah in October 2007 and Uma Singh in January 2009. At the time of his death Sah was a central executive committee member of the Press Chautari, one of the major national unions of Nepali journalists, and a constituent unit of IFJ affiliate the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ). Uma Singh worked in the southern town of Janakpur and was a committed investigative journalist who worked on issues of major public concern such as land expropriation during Nepal’s ten-year long Maoist insurgency that was ended by a Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2006. Meanwhile, Nepal’s journalists have planned a nation-wide series of demonstrations against the most recent attack on a journalist, in the south-eastern town of Biratnagar.
See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/nepali-journalist-birendra-sahs-killers-convicted; and http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/journalists-in-nepal-plan-nation-wide-protests-after-latest-attack

4. Journalist killed in suicide bombing in Pakistan

Asfandyar Khan, of the daily Akhbar-i-Khyber was one among 39 killed in a suicide bomb attack on a shopping centre in Peshawar city on June 11. Nine journalists were among more than 100 injured. The attackers followed the double blast strategy of setting off a minor explosion first and waiting for first responders, including journalists to gather, before setting off a more lethal blast. Khan’s death prompted the IFJ to urge media personnel and their employers to undertake urgent measures to ensure safe reporting in Pakistan.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-calls-for-safety-education-after-journalist-killed-in-pakistan-blast

5. High Court upholds Wage Award for Pakistan journalists

SAMSN partners have welcomed a ruling by the Sindh High Court in the Pakistani city of Karachi, upholding the Seventh Award for journalists and other newspaper employees, made under national law. On May 31, the High Court dismissed identical petitions filed by the All Pakistan Newspaper Society – the peak body representing the industry – and the Herald Media group, which sought to quash the Seventh Wage Award for journalists and newspaper workers, announced in 2000. SAMSN partners have called for the institution of the Eighth Wage Board which is now several years overdue.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-welcomes-wage-award-ruling-in-pakistan

6. Journalist arrested in India under Official Secrets Act

SAMSN partners have strongly protested the arrest of Tarakant Dwivedi, alias Akela, a senior journalist in Mumbai city under India’s Official Secrets Act. This followed the publication of a story by the daily Mumbai Mirror, about the poor conditions in which essential security equipment was stored in Mumbai’s major train terminus, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Dwivedi, who now works with the afternoon daily newspaper, Midday, was taken from his office on May 19 by a police contingent, allegedly for questioning. Once at the police station, he was placed under arrest. Following protests by Mumbai’s main journalist unions, he was released on bail after three days under arrest.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-mumbai-journalists-arrest-under-official-secrets-act

7. Reporter attacked in Sri Lanka’s north

The IFJ joined SAMSN partner the Free Media Movement (FMM) Sri Lanka in condemning the May 28 attack on journalist S. Kavitharan in the northern city Jaffna. The FMM reports Kavitharan was attacked by an unidentified group while he was on his way to the offices of his employer, the Tamil-language Uthayan. He had earlier received threats from members of certain pro-government paramilitary groups over critical reports he had written about the security situation in Jaffna and on paramilitary group’s activities.

8. New report on press freedom in Afghanistan

The IFJ and SAMSN partner, the Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association (AIJA) have released a report assessing the media freedom situation in Afghanistan since January 2008. The report, Journalism in Times of War: Press Freedom in Afghanistan 2008-2011, was prepared with the support of the European Union (EU) and documents how journalism in Afghanistan continues to be scarred by seemingly endless conflict, despite making rapid strides in a changing environment.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/new-ifj-report-assesses-press-freedom-in-afghanistan

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