http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=149847&cid=2
S Asian journalists increasingly at risk: report Wed, Dec 30th, 2009 2:45 am BdST Dial 2324 from your mobile for latest news Dhaka, Dec 29 (bdnews24.com)—The South Asia Media Monitor 2009 report has expressed concerns over the number of journalists becoming casualties of conflicts raging in the region. The report, simultaneously launched Tuesday in the capitals of SAARC countries, said there has also been a rise in violent incidents reported from India. "The impunity with which journalists have been killed in Pakistan (7), Afghanistan (2), India (1), Sri Lanka (1) and Nepal (1) is still there and the state authorities have failed to prosecute the murderers," the report reads. The media has come under tremendous pressure due to the ongoing conflicts in states like Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the surge of terrorism in the region. Private body, Media Commission Bangladesh (MCB) released the report in Dhaka at the National Press Club. BANGLADESH: STRONGER LEGISLATION NEEDED The report's Bangladesh chapter says the country's legislation needs to be strengthened to ensure a freer press and to raise the professional status of journalists. Bangladesh's return to democracy, after two years of emergency rule, raised hopes for a freer press in 2009, but "restriction and obstacles" still remain, said the annual report. It also said the media needs to be more active in coming forward with solutions to the problems of the people, especially youth. On the effects of the fast expansion of ICT and education, the report says, it has created greater awareness among the people and augmented their expectations. Internet-based communications are posing new challenges to the traditional media, according to report's portion on Bangladesh, conducted by MCB. MCB president Mizanur Rahman Shelly told the launching ceremony that oppression of journalists was most serious issue for Bangladeshi media. "Journalists are still subjected to repression and persecution by powerful groups within and outside the government and its agencies like the security forces as well as by terrorist organisations and associates by the ruling and the opposition party," he said. 'RISKY AFFAIR' The South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), which conducted the study, says that reporting the truth and fair comment has become a 'very risky affair' in the region. Authorities in some countries have used legal provisions dealing with exceptional situations, such as "terrorism" and "sedition", to prosecute or intimidate journalists, the study says. It said that journalists in Sri Lanka have suffered the worst by all standards, considerably more serious than even the travails that their counterparts in Pakistan have faced. Citing incidents like the daylight murder of Sri Lanka's eminent editor Wickrematunge, "abduction-style arrest" of Vithyatharan and 20-year jail term for Tissainayagam on charges of "terrorism", SAFMA said that it represented a new low for the country. Many top journalists had to flee Sri Lanka fearing for their lives, concluded the report. Over-commercialisation, monopolisation and excessive political clout chipped away at professionalism and ethical norms, especially in India and Pakistan, in 2009, according to SAFMA. The situation for the functioning of a free media in the region rapidly deteriorated as vested interests outmanoeuvered editorial control, added the study. SAFMA also came down hard on the regulatory environment for media, especially for the electronic ones, saying that in most countries in the region it is "ill-defined'. It says that newly-emerged electronic media in some countries had no ethical and professional restraint on their conduct and standards fell with the induction of a non-professional breed of embedded amateurs. bdnews24.com/rhn/bd/rah/2016h. ------------------------------------ -- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTMedia mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to [email protected], OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE Share media news, discuss journalism issues and network with media professionals across South Asia on this mailing list. Just write to [email protected] TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTMedia by sending a blank mail to [email protected] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTCaste: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
