Covering and Investigating Attacks Against Journalists in South Asia: A Cross-Border Cooperation
"The crackdown on the freedom of expression in South Asia poses a major challenge to attaining the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] and needs to be addressed urgently through coordinated action by the international community."
This project, entitled Covering and Investigating Attacks Against Journalists in South Asia: A Cross-Border Cooperation, brings together five media organisations from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Nepal to report about the killings, attacks, harassment, and intimidation of journalists in these South Asian countries. Launched at the end of 2020 by the International Press Institute (IPI), the purpose of the project is to create public awareness about attacks on journalists, highlight the decline of press freedom across South Asia, and influence policymakers to end impunity for crimes against journalists.
News organisations from the four countries that are partnering with IPI are IPI members and include: The Daily Star in Bangladesh, The Week - Malayala Manorama in India, Dawn in Pakistan, and Nagarik (Nepali) and myRepublica (English) in Nepal.
As part of project activities, these media partners work with IPI and partners to gather information about attacks on journalists and the impunity for crimes against journalists in their respective countries. In-depth reports on the state of press freedom are published regularly and to date include: State of Press Freedom and Attacks on Journalists in South Asia Factsheets, which highlight statistics from 2021 on the number of journalists that are killed, arrested, attacked, or legally harassed.
A further set of reports was published in 2023 looking at the period from Oct 2022 - March 2023:
- Press Freedom Violation in Nepal [PDF]
- Press Freedom Violation in India [PDF]
- Press Freedom Violation in Bangladesh [PDF]
- Press Freedom Violation in Pakistan [PDF]
In addition, throughout the year, the participating newspapers cover the issue of journalist safety through different journalistic formats in order to raise awareness of the issue. Special attention is given to attacks against women journalists, and all the stories are shared for publication by the participating news organisations across countries. Awareness campaigns also form part of the activities. For example, to mark Human Rights Day on December 10 2022, IPI together with seven print and online media outlets in the four countries launched an ad campaign aimed at raising public awareness about the need to protect press freedom as an essential pillar of democracy and human rights.
The news stories and reports on abuses against journalists form the basis of IPI's regional and global advocacy to bring about evidence-based change. Together with like-minded organisations in South Asia and around the world, IPI is working to raise awareness among governments and policymakers about the challenges journalists face in these countries and to call for effective strategies to create the conditions for journalists to work safely and without fear of retaliation. As part of this effort, the initiative has developed advocacy briefing papers, published open letters to governments, and conducted meetings with policymakers in the four countries to present the findings of research and seek desired changes. For example, in May 2023 (on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day), IPI published open letters to all the heads of state in the four countries urging their governments to take immediate and concrete action to protect and respect press freedom and ensure that their citizens can exercise their fundamental right to receive diverse, independent news and information. The open letters for each country can be accessed here:
Click here for more information on the project, including news on the latest activities, articles published by the different media outlets, and reports on abuses against journalists.
Context and rationale for the project (as quoted from "The State of Press Freedom and Safety of Journalists in South Asia" [PDF] policy brief):
"The South Asia region is witnessing an unprecedented onslaught on media freedom. Journalists and media organizations are faced with a multitude of challenges. A climate of hatred towards journalists and media outlets is being fostered by political parties in power in the region. Objective and critical journalism is frowned upon by those in power, who use social media, cutting edge information technology and financial constraints to undermine press freedom.
Media pluralism has witnessed a marked decline amidst increasing arrests, online attacks, smear campaigns and legal actions against independent media organizations and individual journalists, who criticise political leaders and governments. Equally alarming is the fact that these democratically elected governments are not only failing to uphold press freedom and to protect journalists, but have also enacted legislation or resorted to other means of coercion to stifle independent media and critical journalists. Media organizations that do not toe the official line are being starved of government advertising revenue and the private sector is under pressure to withhold advertisements to these outlets.
Over the years, several journalists have been killed in the region with complete impunity. Attacks on journalists are a daily occurrence. The situation is so grave that journalists and editors have resorted to self-censorship in these countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the assault on press freedom globally and the South Asia region is no exception. According to the IPI COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker, nearly 200 violations linked to the pandemic have been reported from the AsiaPacific region, of which 107 are from four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. As many as 71 journalists have faced arrests and charges related to their coverage of the pandemic and its consequences, while 32 cases of physical attacks and verbal threats have been reported from these countries."
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