(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 3 January 2002 RSF press release: 21st SAARC summit in Nepal Deterioration of press freedom in the region Reporters Sans Frontières asks for the release of imprisoned journalists While the heads of state of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are meeting in Kathmandu (Nepal) […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 3 January 2002 RSF press release:
21st SAARC summit in Nepal
Deterioration of press freedom in the region
Reporters Sans Frontières asks for the release of imprisoned journalists
While the heads of state of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are meeting in Kathmandu (Nepal) for the 21st summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF – Reporters Without Borders) condemns the deterioration of press freedom in the region. Moreover, RSF calls for the release of the fourteen journalists imprisoned in the countries participating in the summit. RSF also draws the governments’ attention to the problem of impunity. Nearly 90 per cent of the murderers and attackers of reporters have never been indicted.
Press freedom scorned
Since the declaration of a state of emergency in November 2001 in Nepal, press freedom is no longer assured. The press is subjected to censorship, and some forty journalists have been arrested by the police. Areas where there is fighting between the army and the Maoist guerrilla movement are closed to the press. Bangladesh was Asia’s and the world’s leader in attacks on journalists in 2001. Since Khaleda Zia’s election in October, activists of the two main parties in power (the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami) have attacked more than fifty journalists. The government is doing nothing to curb this violence, and, as under Sheikh Hasina’s regime, the attackers enjoy woeful impunity. In Sri Lanka too, journalists are still being victimised by attacks and intimidation. Reporters of Tamil origin have been directly accused of being “spies” for the Tamil Tigers by government publications. Such accusations put their lives at serious risk. In Pakistan, dozens of foreign and Pakistani journalists were detained by the authorities in the months of October and November for having tried to cover the events in the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.
RSF believes that the fight against terrorism and armed movements cannot serve as an excuse to restrict fundamental freedoms. RSF deplores the fact that adopting anti-terrorist laws, as in India, should be an occasion for approving proposals that run counter to freedom.
Fourteen journalists jailed
Nepal, host to the 21st SAARC Summit, is the regional leader with the most journalists behind bars. At least nine news-gathering professionals are being detained, eight of whom are journalists and collaborators of the pro-Maoist publications Janadesh, Disabodh and Janadisha, who have been secretly held for more than a month. In Bangladesh, journalist Shahriar Kabir has been held for more than forty-three days for having interviewed Hindu refugees in India, victims of violence by Muslims. RSF has recently met with the Bangladeshi ambassador to France to protest Shahriar Kabir’s detention for “sedition”. In Pakistan, two journalists are being held under the blasphemy law. One of them, Ayub Khoso, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison. In 2001, the law on blasphemy became a very real threat to the Pakistani press. More than ten journalists were arrested, and two dailies were shut down.
Fighting impunity
RSF is asking the governments of the SAARC to do whatever they can to fight against the impunity enjoyed by the murderers of journalists. In Sri Lanka, more than a year after the crime, the murderers of BBC reporter Nimalarajan have still not been found. In Bangladesh, Joynal Jazari, the man behind the attempted murder of journalist Tipu Sultan, has still not been arrested by the police.
The India-Pakistan crisis is a threat to press freedom
The risk of war between the region’s two nuclear powers is also a threat to free speech. The first regrettable occurrence took place on December 28th when the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority forbade Pakistani cable operators to broadcast Indian programmes. The Islamabad government had already rejected visas for nearly all Indian reporters or reporters of Indian origin desiring to cover the Afghani conflict. In India, risks for reporters are growing as the confrontations between the Kashmir separatists and the Indian army intensify. In 2000, a terrorist attack in Srinagar, Kashmir’s capital, resulted in the death of a journalist. In 2001, more than twenty journalists were attacked by elements of the Indian security forces. The press in Kashmir is subjected to pressure from armed movements who threatened it with reprisals if it doesn’t publish their press releases.
Recommendations
– RSF asks the member countries of the SAARC to honour their commitments to press freedom by releasing the jailed journalists in their countries. Only Pakistan, the Maldives and Bhutan have not ratified the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (United Nations ICCPR).
– RSF asks the member countries to suppress legislation that includes prison sentences for press infractions. Such laws exist in all the region’s countries. By imposing sanctions that are disproportionate to the harm done, these laws in certain countries promote self-censorship on certain subjects by journalists. RSF notes that in a document adopted in January 2000, Abid Hussain, the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to free opinion and speech, clearly established that “imprisonment as a sentence for the peaceful expression of an opinion constitutes a serious violation of human rights”.
