NEW FRONTS, BRAVE VOICES PRESS FREEDOM IN SOUTH ASIA 2016-2017 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL IFJ PRESS FREEDOM REPORT FOR SOUTH ASIA (2016-2017) 2 IFJ PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2017 3 This document has been produced Sevanti Ninan by the International Federation of Designed by: Magnesium Media Journalists (IFJ) on behalf of the Images: With special thanks to South Asia Media Solidarity Network Agence France-Presse for the (SAMSN). use of images throughout the Afghan Independent Journalists’ report. Additional photographs are Association contributed by IFJ affiliates and also All India Newspapers Employees’ accessed under a Creative Commons Federation Attribution Non-Commercial Licence Bangladesh Manobadhikar Sangbadik and are acknowledged as such Forum through this report. CONTENTS Federation of Nepali Journalists This document has been produced FOREWORD 4 Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka with support from the United Nations Indian Journalists’ Union Educational, Scientific and Cultural OVERVIEW 6 Organisation (UNESCO) and the Journalists Association of Bhutan Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs IMPUNITY 10 Maldives Journalists’ Association (NMFA). The views and contents National Union of Journalists, India expressed herein are those of the IFJ GENDER 20 National Union of Journalists, Nepal and can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of UNESCO and Nepal Press Union NMFA. INTERNET CONTROLS 28 Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ The author will be responsible for the ONLINE HARASSMENT 36 Association choice and presentation of the facts contained in the paper and for the AFGHANISTAN 40 South Asia Media Solidarity Network opinions expressed therein, which will (SAMSN) – Defending rights of not be necessarily those of UNESCO journalists and freedom of expression in BANGLADESH 46 and NMFA and do not commit the South Asia. samsn.ifj.org/ Organisations, the designations BHUTAN 52 The SAMSN Digital Hub – https:// employed and the presentation of samsn.ifj.org/map/ provides a listing material throughout this book will not INDIA 56 of all known cases of media rights imply the expression of any opinion violations from 2014.w whatsoever on the part of UNESCO MALDIVES 66 and NMFA concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or NEPAL 72 area, or its authorities or concerning Editor: Laxmi Murthy the delimitation of its frontiers and PAKISTAN 78 Special thanks to: boundaries. Faisal Khan Abid Bhat CC-BY-SA license SRI LANKA 86 Ujjwal Acharya Open Access is not applicable to non- Sunanda Deshapriya IFJ copyright photos in this publication. ANNEXURE: 94 Cara Bruce List of Media Rights Violations, Alexandra Hearne May 2016 to April 2017 Samandar Khan Iqbal Khattak Sukumar Muralidharan Hujatullah Mujadidi Adnan Rehmat Cover: A gathering tide of protest against the brutal killing of journalism student Saleem Samad Mashal Khan in Mardan in Khyber Sujata Madhok Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on Jane Worthington baseless accusations of blasphemy. Marguerite Elson Credit: AFP/Farooq Naeem Namgay Zam Faisul Yaseen Contents: Maldivian blogger Ahmed Rilwan Sangay Choki Abdulla was last seen on August 8, 2014. His family have maintained a campaign ever Network of Women in Media, India since, demanding action from the Maldives Rukmani Anandani police to find their son, April 2016. Malini Subramaniam Credit: Dying Regime/Creative Commons Geeta Seshu 4 IFJ PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2017 5 FOREWORD cross South Asia, journalism has always been a tough profession. Its diverse terrain for media workers is ever challenged by the complex socio-cultural and political dynamic that also weaves it together. Out in the field, in local and regional beats as well as on high-profile political trails, journalists and media workers are too often exposed to the dangers this volatile mix presents. As the numbers of incidents recorded by the IFJ Aand its affiliates show, they are exposed to threats, violence or intimidation in a bid to silence. For too many, it takes the highest price - life. Sadly, two more lives were tragically taken as we prepared the final pages of this year’s report. A 23-year-old journalism student, Mashal Khan, was bludgeoned to death in a mob attack in Mardan in North Western Pakistan for posting allegedly blasphemous content on social media. Just days later, the Maldives woke to the news that 29-year-old blogger Yameen Rasheed had been brutally stabbed to death as he returned home from work. A bold and influential voice against injustice, autocracy and extremism, Yameen was a tireless journalist, campaigner and friend. He was also despised by those who wanted him silenced. These killings horribly encapsulate the latest picture of threat and danger emerging from the violent discourse overtaking parts of South Asia, and more broadly around the world where authoritarian rule is eroding the very essence THESE KILLINGS HORRIBLY ENCAPSULATE THE LATEST PICTURE OF THREAT of democracy. With it, suffers press freedom and the public’s right to know. AND DANGER EMERGING FROM THE VIOLENT DISCOURSE OVERTAKING This 15th annual review of journalism in the region, New Fronts, Brave Voices: Press Freedom in South Asia 2016-2017, Members of the public peer into a damaged TV news channel van after an assault in Karachi on February 12, PARTS OF SOUTH ASIA, AND MORE BROADLY AROUND THE WORLD WHERE presents the current critical nexus for journalism and 2017. Gunmen shot dead Taimur Abbas, an employee freedom of expression in this difficult space. of Samaa TV news channel shortly after launching a With each year, this important record is created through grenade attack on a police vehicle. AUTHORITARIAN RULE IS ERODING THE VERY ESSENCE OF DEMOCRACY. the dedication, commitment and ongoing determination of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN). It represents a strong and unified voice on the issues that bind the region’s media and is a record of shared experience, for women and religious and ethnic minorities. But this leading the world in imposing total internet shutdowns either the work of its journalists are as vital as ever and must be strength and solidarity that has come to represent the fragmentation has also challenged and eroded traditional on a national or state wide basis, in the name of national defended defiantly and bravely. network. media, and with that journalists’ ability to recruit, organise security and riot control. In an overtly aggressive measure This report documents the challenges, battles, triumphs Around South Asia, as well as contending with democracies and defend their right to decent and regular wages. Together to counteract the escalating waves of public protests in and ongoing efforts by incredible individuals and strong in transition and the broad economic challenges that come they are confronting ever aggressive controls placed by Kashmir, the government in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state unions that are determined to remain vigilant and defend hand in hand with that, we see how journalism is fighting for its governments in the name of national security. notified internet service providers to block the transmission their professionalism and rights. very existence and survival on numerous old and new fronts. By the close of 2016 the region had a combined population of messages on 22 social networking services, including For these reasons and more, New Fronts, Brave Voices Media outlets are wrestling with a digital transition that is of over 1.7 billion and over 415 million active internet users Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, for a month, or until encapsulates a record of this past year and the work of many. changing the flow and access to information in a way never – four out of ten persons in the region. Yet, South Asian further orders were issued. We hope it will direct future campaigns and a stronger media seen before. Journalists are doggedly pursuing, creating and countries have significant digital rights challenges including The move highlights the fundamental challenges ahead for South Asia. sharing stories with ever wider audiences with incredible growing official controls on access, censorship, surveillance, for media workers. While governments and extremists speed and efficacy. Their ranks are becoming more diverse and privacy rights violations of both media and citizens. continue to put a megaphone to fear and less to reason and Jane Worthington and ever more representative as new opportunities present In the past year, South Asia took the dubious honour of Credit: AFP/Rizwan Tabassum moderation, the stories of South Asia and, importantly, IFJ Asia-Pacific 6 IFJ PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2017 7 OVERVIEW PUBLIC OPINION WITHIN BANGLADESH REMAINS POLARISED BY RIVAL PERCEPTIONS OF HISTORY AND DISAGREEMENTS OVER IDENTIFYING outh Asia is a region of enormous contrasts, but been at risk in Bangladesh in recent times. from the vastness of India to tiny and placid Bhutan, Nepal similarly, continues to be in transition, two general FRIEND AND FOE IN THE CONTEMPORARY GEOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE journalism faces several problems in common. elections since the monarchy was overthrown. A republican The safety situation has improved in some of the constitution has been adopted with substantive guarantees for countries that were racked by internal strife, but freedom of speech, but fails to attend to the complexity of ethnic journalists remain at acute risk in India and Pakistan. aspirations in a very diverse country. That failure has stoked fresh divides that make objectivity in conflict reporting a serious risk. Mustafa,10, son of Afghan reporter Zabihullah Tamanna, is comforted Nepal and Sri Lanka have perhaps improved their tensions and impacted the function of media. The price of failing to assume the partisanship demanded by during a funeral ceremony in Kabul. Tamanna, 38, was killed along with American reporter David Gilkey in a Taliban ambush in southern records since they came out of decades of internal Several lacunae have emerged in the implementation of active combatants can often be death. Pakistan’s journalists have Helmand province.