A report on press freedom in South Asia produced by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has been criticised by media experts following its launch in Maldives that itself scores badly on issue. The report, titled The Fight Goes On, was officially released here on Wednesday during a two-day seminar organised by the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) in association with UNESCO and the Maldives government.

IFJ director for Asia-Pacific Jacqueline Park describes South Asia as one of the most dangerous places for journalists to work in the world. “Those who threaten them (the journalists) are too often protected from prosecution by a culture of immunity and indifference,” she says. The IFJ report documents murder and harassment of journalists in almost all countries in South Asia, with Bangladesh having the worst record with at least 462 journalists reported attacked or harassed in 238 separate incidents.

Nepal is the only bright spot where press freedom has improved since the signing of the peace accord between the government and the Maoist communists in November last year. In Pakistan, the report said, government officials, the police and military intelligence were often behind “systematic and frequently brutal, attacks on scribes.”

“There is a tendency throughout this report to focus only on tragic, negative consequences of the exercise of freedom,” noted Javed Jabbar, a former Pakistan information minister. “There is no adequate acknowledgement of the enormous growth in freedom of expression in the media (in Pakistan) by which most people who use that freedom are not subjected to persecution or harassment.”

Aniruddha Bahal, one of India’s well-known investigative journalists, said: “There is a need to address threats faced by local journalists in small towns and provinces.” The IFJ report pointed out a number of attacks on journalists in districts, especially in the conflict-prone Indian states such as Kashmir, Assam and Manipur.

The report is scathing on Sri Lanka’s press freedom record in the past year, saying it “has severely worsened.” IFJ says that Tamil journalists in particular have been targets of murder, kidnapping and harassment. Sugeeswara Senadhira, media advisor to the government of Sri Lanka, after reading the report said that the biggest violator of press freedom in Sri Lanka is the LTTE and there is only a passing reference to it in the IFJ report.

For foreign participants at the Male event, a reality check was offered by the public confrontation between a small group of local journalists and the young, articulate Information Minister of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed after he expatiated on media reform moves in the Malidves. When one of the local journalists told the minister that he should take steps to stop police harassment of journalists on the beat, the minister fired back saying that the problem is with what he called “multi-task journalists” — that is activists who masquerade as journalists.

“We have offered to have an accreditation scheme for journalists so that they could be protected but you people refused to accept it,” he told the accuser. “How can we identify

activists from journalists without an accreditation scheme?” asked the Information Minister. —IPS