South Asia Media Solidarity Network Bulletin

To SAMSN members and friends,

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

Please distribute this bulletin widely among colleagues in the media.

In this bulletin:

1. Coalition Military Forces in Afghanistan Admit Responsibility for Journalist’s Death
2. Sri Lanka Partners Undertake Solidarity Mission to Jaffna
3. Media Workers Attacked in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
4. Journalists Assaulted by Police in Nepal
5. Concerns Over Defamation Action in Bangladesh
6. Arrest of Journalist in Chhattisgarh Suggests Long-running Vendetta
7. Supreme Court in India hears petition against journalists’ Wage Board
8. IFJ Adopts Declaration on Journalism Under Terrorism Laws

1. Coalition Military Forces in Afghanistan Admit Responsibility for Journalist’s Death

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan has admitted that one of its soldiers, engaged in active combat operations, was responsible for the killing of journalist Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak. According to an ISAF statement issued on September 8, Khpalwak, a journalist with the BBC Pashto service and the Pahjwok Afghan News agency, was shot dead during combat between U.S. army troops and armed insurgents who breached the compound of the state-owned Radio Television Afghanistan in Tarin Khot, Uruzgan province on July 28. Though he was unarmed, Khpalwak was assessed by a soldier engaged in the armed action as a threat. Some of his movements were also read as suggesting intent to set off a suicide bomb. The IFJ and SAMSN partners have called for further dialogue on means of securing journalists against harm in situations of active combat.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-mourns-bbc-journalist-killed-by-nato-forces-in-afghanistan.

2. Sri Lanka Partners Undertake Solidarity Mission to Jaffna

SAMSN partners in Sri Lanka organised a fact-finding and solidarity mission to Jaffna city in the northern province of the country between August 15 and 17. A team of activists from the Free Media Movement, an IFJ affiliate, travelled to the city with several other media freedom organisations. The team made inquiries with Jaffna journalists and media workers about the circumsatnces they have faced since the end of the civil war in May 2009 and the lifting of restrictions on movement in and out of the province several months later. On August 16, the team from Colombo joined local groups in a protest demonstration commencing at Jaffna’s main bus stand.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-solidarity-for-press-freedom-mission-to-jaffna.

3. Media Workers Attacked in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh

Two photojournalists were attacked by security personnel on August 19 in Srinagar, capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India, while photographing a political demonstration. A reporter from a local paper who later sought to inquire into the incident was threatened by senior police officials. On September 5, an Indian journalist was stopped while travelling through Srinagar city traffic and assaulted. He was held in a police station for two hours afterwards and severely mistreated. In Peshawar city, capital of the Pakistan province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a reporting team of AVT Khyber News channel was intercepted by unidentified men on a motorcycle near the High Court building on August 22. The three-member news crew was verbally abused and pelted with stones and bricks. The attackers then fled, firing shots in the air. In the Bangladesh capital city of Dhaka, personnel of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) – an elite force dealing with organised crime and terrorism – assaulted two members of the staff of the Bangla Vision TV channel on September 12. A cameraman and broadcast engineer of the channel had to be admitted to a city hospital for emergency medical attention.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-concerned-by-attack-on-journalists-in-kashmir; http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-attack-on-news-crew-in-pakistan; http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/samsn-samsn-partners-denounce-attacks-on-media-persons-in-india-and-bangladesh.

4. Journalists Assaulted by Police in Nepal

SAMSN partner the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) condemned an assault on three journalists by police in the Dailekh district in western Nepal on September 13. FNJ Dailekh Chapter President and Annapurna Post Daily correspondent Pushkar Thapa, Avenues Television correspondent Bhupendra Shahi and Himalayan Television correspondent Ratna Shahi were beaten with batons and kicked by a police squad led by Sub Inspector Krishna Bahadur Malla. They were attacked as they were leaving a meeting of radio station Panchakoshi Community FM, despite having shown their press cards to police. SAMSN partners joined the FNJ in calling for an immediate inquiry into the attack.

5. Concerns Over Defamation Action in Bangladesh

SAMSN partners have cautioned against any drastic action after defamation charges were laid against editor Salma Islam, executive editor Saiful Alam and reporter Jashim Chowdhury of the Bangla-language daily Jugantor, by Bangladesh’s Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan.This followed the newspaper’s publication of a report questioning some of the expenses incurred by the ministry. SAMSN partners have urged that recourse be sought not to criminal law, but to alternative institutions of grievance redress, such as the Press Council of Bangladesh.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-questions-defamation-action-against-journalists-in-bangladesh.

6. Arrest of Journalist in Chhattisgarh Suggests Long-running Vendetta

SAMSN partners have joined civil liberties groups in criticising the arrest by police in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh of Lingaram Kodopi, a journalist from an indigenous community, on charges of collusion with a banned Maoist insurgent group. Kodopi was arrested in 2009 by local police and held for a length of time without charge. In 2010, he was implicated in an official statement of the Chhattisgarh police, in an act of arson and murder, when he was far away from the scene of the incident at the time.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/vendetta-feared-in-arrest-of-journalist-in-chhattisgarh.

7. Supreme Court of India Hears Petition Against Journalists’ Wage Board

The Supreme Court of India held a hearing on September 12 on the petition filed by the newspaper industry against the implementation of the sixth statutory wage award for journalists and other newspaper employees. The newspaper industry has argued that the wage award is in breach of its fundamental rights and a grave threat to the freedom of the press. Newspaper unions have urged the court to dismiss the petition since the legal points it raises have been dealt with earlier and found to be without substance. The court will now take up the matter on September 21.

See: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2447543.ece and http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-09-14/news/30154424_1_wageboard-bench-journalists-and-non-journalists.

8. IFJ Adopts Declaration on Journalism Under Terrorism Laws

A conference on journalism in a time of anti-terror laws urged that journalists should claim back their role in determining the terms of the public discourse about terrorism and refuse to be silenced by the rhetoric of national security which has been used to stifle scrutiny of official policies following the 9/11 attacks in the US. The conference was organised by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its European group, the Federation of European Journalists (EFJ), at Brussels on September 10 and 11 and adopted a declaration titled Journalism in the Shadow of Terror Laws.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-anti-terror-laws-conference-urges-restoration-of-journalists-role-in-terrorism-discourse; and http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/declaration-adopted-by-ifj-efj-conference-on-journalism-in-the-shadow-of-terror-laws.

IFJ Asia-Pacific
http://asiapacific.ifj.org
ifj@ifj-asia.org

SAMSN Members
Afghan Independent Journalists' Association, Afghanistan
Bangladesh Journalists' Rights Forum (BJRF), Bangladesh
Dhaka Reporters' Unity, Bangladesh
All India Newspapers Employees' Federation (AINEF), India
Indian Journalists' Union (IJU), India
National Union of Journalists India (NUJI), India
Maldives Journalists Association
Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), Nepal
National Union of Journalists Nepal (NUJN), Nepal
Nepal Press Union (NPU), Nepal
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Pakistan
Pakistan Press Foundation, Pakistan
Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), Sri Lanka
Federation of Media Employees' Trade Unions (FMETU), Sri Lanka
Free Media Movement (FMM), Sri Lanka
Bangladesh Manobadhikar Sangbadik Forum (BMSF: Human Rights Journalists Forum of Bangladesh)
Media Watch, Bangladesh

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