| NEW
DELHI: Around ten journalists were killed in the last six months in South and
South East Asia, which is home to some of the most repressive regimes in the world,
the World Association of Newspapers said in a report today. While
three journalists died in the Philippines, two each were killed in Afghanistan
and Sri Lanka and one each in Bangladesh, Pakistan and China, according to WAN’s
annual half-year review of press freedom. ‘Asia
is a region where media outlets on a daily basis have to defend themselves against
government pressure and targeted violence from different political groups,"
the report presented to the Board of the Paris-based WAN on the eve of the World
Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum here today said. Nearly
60 journalists have been murdered worldwide in the past months, and prosecution
of journalists for "treason" and "extremism" are on the rise,
according to the review which painted a grim picture of attacks, imprisonment
and murder facing journalists in many countries. Iraq remains the most deadly
place country, with 26 killed. "The
past six months have brought another disturbingly high death toll of journalists
and media professionals, killed both in and outside of conflict zones. A quasi-total
impunity still prevails throughout the world and most notably in Central and Latin
America, but also in the war-torn Iraq and in Russia," said the report.
"Administrative
and legal harassment, arbitrary arrests and detentions have remained a pattern
to suppress press freedom in countries as diverse as Belarus, Egypt, Zimbabwe,
China or Vietnam. As for death threats, they continue to reach investigative reporters,
whether they work in Haiti or in Croatia." "Whereas
criminal defamation was still broadly used against journalists over the past six
months, cases of prosecution on the severe charges of ³treason² or ³extremism²
seemed to be on the rise," it said. "New court and search cases throughout
Europe and in the United States came to confirm the urgency to provide for a clear
legal protection of journalists confidential sources." The
upcoming Olympic Games in China has further increased government control on media
in the country, despite promises to “ensure complete media freedom”
for the Olympics. Online censorship is commonplace and cyber-dissidents receive
lengthy prison sentences for reporting on human rights and other abuses. Major
American internet companies, such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! have not only
agreed to the censorship imposed by the Chinese authorities, but also play a decisive
role in the tracking and subsequent jailing of cyber-dissidents. Despite
having regained many of the freedoms they were deprived of during the internal
crisis and state of emergency in 2005, the situation remains hazardous for media
practitioners in Nepal. They have increasingly become the victims of physical
attacks by different political factions in the country in the past months. A number
of media outlets have been also been targeted through bomb attacks.
The press freedom
situation in Afghanistan has seen a further decline over the past six months.
The Afghan government is tightening its control on the media in the country. The
retransmissions of Al-Jazeera International were banned in April and a new media
law, which fails to meet international standards in some key areas, is currently
being drafted. In
neighbouring Pakistan, working conditions have worsened for journalists in the
past six months. International press freedom and human rights organisations have
expressed concern over the increased government pressure on media, despite official
claims that the country enjoys “full press freedom”.
The ongoing
civil war in Sri Lanka has further degraded the already dire press freedom situation
in the country, as pressure on media is increasingly used as a tool of combat
in the war. Abductions and threats have become commonplace, and government officials
are regularly making hostile statements against the media. | 
