The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and partner

organisations from the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) joined a

declaration in Kathmandu, Nepal, condemning the rapid deterioration in conditions

for free media in South Asia.

The declaration, which was adopted at a two-day meeting of media

practitioners from South Asia hosted by UNESCO, the Federation of Nepali

Journalists (FNJ) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for

Human Rights (OHCHR) to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, affirmed that free

media institutions are an essential part of efforts in all South Asian

countries to build a truly democratic and representative political order.

The delegates deplored “the evident deterioration in the media freedom

situation” in South Asia and noted that the “most challenging issues for

journalists are violence directed by state and non-state actors engaged in war,

and bureaucratic and legislative efforts to silence dissent”.

The meeting noted that the hazards facing free and independent media in

the region have been epitomised in the murders this year of Lasantha

Wickrematunge in Sri Lanka, Uma Singh in Nepal and Musa Khankhel in Pakistan.

In India,

“there have been four murders, three arrests of editors or publishers, and one

case of a news organisation being charged with sedition” since World Press

Freedom Day in 2008.

The gathering observed that in Sri Lanka, “J.S. Tissainayagam, arrested in March 2008 and charged

with terrorism six months later, continues to face trial for articles written

in 2006 that were critical of the military strategy of the Government in its

combat operations against separatist guerrillas in the east of the country”.

The murder in January of Wickrematunge, who was posthumously honoured

with UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Award for 2009, was followed by the

kidnap-style arrest of N. Vithyatharan, another Tamil editor in Sri Lanka,

and his detention without charge for two months. Vithyatharan was discharged

unconditionally on April 24. However, throughout his detention senior government

officials repeatedly branded him an “accessory in terrorism”.

The South Asian media freedom community demanded that state authorities

in all countries “explicitly denounce these acts of lawlessness against the

media and institute appropriate sanctions against those responsible”.

The meeting’s delegates resolved that all media freedom bodies in the

region will “remain united in cross-border solidarity, in shared pursuit of an

environment of respect for press freedom”. They pledged that all bodies will

work together as “a cohesive network to support each other in (a) common

aspiration to improve and assert press freedom and the rights of journalists in

the South Asia region”.

The deterioration in the media environment is also emphasised inUnder Fire: Press Freedom in South Asia 2008-2009, produced by the IFJ for

SAMSN and released at the Nepal

meeting.

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific

on +612 9333 0919

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 122 countries