Journalists under threat

Myanmar/Burma, China, the Phillippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Fiji, as well as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan are among those to come under the spotlight.

Recently the deportation of Evan Hannah, the publisher of The Fiji Times, in April, after a series of editorials questioning the legitimacy of the military leadership and a call for the return to democracy, is a case in point.

In India, political activists reportedly attacked the home of Kumar Ketkar, editor of the Marathi language daily Loksatta, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra on June 5 after an article criticised a decision by the Maharashtra state government to install a 94m statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, ruler of a medieval kingdom in the Marathi cultural region, off the coast from Mumbai.

In Sri Lanka, the civil war between the government and Tamil Tigers has been on and off since 1983, with the latest hostilities breaking out in late 2005. The IFJ has appealed to the Sri Lankan Government to order defence ministry and defence personnel to end a campaign of “slanderous attacks and threats against independent journalists”.

A recent editorial on a website run by the Ministry of Defence called for all members of the armed forces to unite and guard against a “treacherous media campaign against them”. The editorial apparently made serious allegations against the Free Media Movement (FMM).

On May 22 journalist Keith Noyahr was abducted and assaulted. Several other journalists received threats. Journalist J.S. Tissainayagam has been held in detention without charge since March. A Tamil, he is editor of outreachsl.com website. In May TV and radio correspondent Paranirupasingam Devakumar, 36, of Vaddukoddai, Jaffna, was hacked to death in Navanthurei by unidentified attackers. His companion was also reported killed. The Free Media Movement (FMM) reported he was the ninth journalist or media worker killed in Jaffna since 2006.

According to reports from the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Mohammad Ibrahim, a reporter with Pakistan’s Express TV, was targetted and killed on May 21. Returning from an interview with a militant group, he was sprayed with automatic gunfire by unidentified assailants on a motorcycle in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas. He was the general secretary of the Bajaur unit of the Tribal Union of Journalists and the fourth Pakistan journalist to be killed this year; the 11th since the beginning of 2007.

There have been 41 cases of criminal defamation proceedings against journalists in Indonesia from 2003 to 2007 prompting the Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI) to call for defamation law reform. Risang Bima Wijaya, a former general manager and editor-in-chief of Radar Jogja and journalist with Jawa Pos newspaper, was sentenced to six months in prison by the Indonesian Supreme Court in January. The IJF reported that the case highlighted the use of criminal defamation laws aimed at journalists.

According to the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists (CAPJ), Meas Asi, a reporter for Panhavorn Khmer (Khmer Intellectual), based in Koh Kong province, was allegedly stopped by police and beaten unconscious before being taken to Koh Kong prison. He was on his way to cover a protest by members of Chhouk village regarding land ownership issues.

Leader of the CPN (Maoist) party Puspa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, gave a blunt warning to the media when he addressed a mass meeting in Kathmandu on May 30 to celebrate the declaration of a republic. His CPN (Maoist) party is the single biggest party in Nepal leading the government. Chairman Prachanda was quoted as saying, "You journalists did well to continuously criticise the Maoists before the Constituent Assembly polls. Otherwise the election would not have taken place at all. Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people.”

Saying there is no such thing as absolute freedom of the press, Dorothy Teoh, from the Nexnews Group, publisher of The Edge and The Sun, wrote in January that under Malaysia’s Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA), all print media of a periodical nature are required to obtain a permit that must be renewed yearly.

A permit can be revoked or suspended by the Home Affairs Ministry for various reasons, such as the publication of content considered “likely to be prejudicial to public order, morality, [or] security”; or likely to “be prejudicial to … national interest.” If the minister refuses to grant or renew a permit, the decision is not open to judicial review, under an amendment in the late 1980s.