IFJ Asia-Pacific Monthly E-bulletin--March 2013

5 April 2013

Welcome to the IFJ Asia-Pacific’s monthly e-bulletin. The next bulletin will be issued on 1 May 2013, and contributions from affiliates are most welcome. To contribute, email ifj@ifj-asia.org.

1. Three journalists slain in one week in Pakistan

Journalists Mehmood Ahmed Afridi, Malik Mumtaz Khan, and Khushnood Ali Shaikh have been killed in Pakistan.

Afridi, a correspondent for the newspaper Intikhab and Kalat press club president, was killed by gunmen travelling by motorcycle in Kalat. Colleagues said Afridi had been waiting outside a public telephone booth when two men on a motorcycle stopped and opened fire.

Khan, was gunned down by armed men waiting in a vehicle with tinted windows of the kind widely used by militants. Khan had been a journalist for 15 years and was president of Miranshah press club.

Shaikh, the chief reporter of the state-controlled Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) wire agency was killed in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province when he was struck in a hit-and-run incident with a car. Shaikh had been receiving threatening calls for some time. Shaikh had informed his union, his employer and the police of the threats.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/three-journalists-slain-in-one-week

2. Assaults on journalists in Hong Kong; political interference claims on Hong Kong broadcaster

Hong Kong journalist and activist Yang Kuang, was assaulted by a group of unidentified people and was illegally detained by police. Kuang arrived at the residence of Liu Xia, wife of Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who has been under illegal house arrest for more than two years in the Haidan District, Beijing. There, the journalist was harassed, attacked and prevented from visiting Liu.

In a separate incident, TVB cameraman, Tam Wing-Man, and Now TV cameraman Wong Kim-fai were assaulted by the gang of unidentified assailants.

“The media has a duty to investigate and share information that is in the public interest. Attacks against journalists are an attack not only of the individual journalists but also of press freedom in general. The victimisation of the journalists by the police, who made no attempt to arrest the perpetrators of a crime, is distressing” said the IFJ Asia-Pacific office.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-assault-of-hong-kong-journalists

There are also claims of political interference at the public broadcaster Hong Kong Radio and Television (RTHK) after a senior staffer said he had experienced political pressure at the public broadcaster.

On March 15, Director Broadcasting Roy Tang Yun-Kwong was accused of political interference in the editorial independence of television programmes. Although Roy Tang repeatedly denied exerting any political pressure on staff, Sze Wing-yuen, a senior staffer, said he and his colleagues had experienced political pressure on several occasions. One accusation related to the political satire programme Headliner being quizzed over why the programme had used Nazi characters in an episode.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-urges-investigation-into-political-interference-claims-at-hong-kongs-public-broadcaster

3. Bomb attack on newspaper editor in Bangladesh

There are reports of an attack on Nayeemul Islam Khan, editor of the daily newspaper Amader Orthoneeti, and his wife Nasima Khan, late night on March 11, in the national capital city of Dhaka.

Nayeemul Khan and his wife suffered injuries when the car in which they were returning from a late-night social function, was attacked with cocktail bombs near the Mohakhali flyover in Dhaka city.

Sources in Bangladesh report that the incident had the hallmarks of a planned attack. In the context of the ongoing political turmoil in Bangladesh over the trial of war crimes suspects from the country’s liberation war in 1971, Nayeemul Khan has been a frequent commentator on television talk shows, where his opinions may have offended one of the contending parties.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-bomb-attack-on-newspaper-editor-in-bangladesh

4. IFJ launches interactive website on press freedom violation in China

The IFJ’s website, funded under a National Endowment for Democracy Project, presents a record of press freedom violations including short descriptions of each violation, the date and the location of each incident. The website will be regularly updated as the IFJ continues to monitor attacks against journalists, violations of journalists’ rights, censorship and threats to freedom of expression and the right to information.

As established in the IFJ Annual China Press Freedom Reports, the number of violations between 2011 and 2012 increased. The suppression also extended to Hong Kong, where the media in Hong Kong faced significant interference by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Leung Chun-Ying and other politicians.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-launches-an-interactive-website-on-press-freedom-violations-in-china

5. New Maldives law on Parliamentary Privilege could impact journalistic freedom; Maldivian journalist arrested while taking photos

The Maldives parliament, the Majlis, has passed the Parliamentary Privileges Act.

Section 17(a) of the act which empowers Parliament or one of its committees to summon anyone to “give witness or to hand over any information” of interest, is considered too broad in its provisions and could undermine the constitutional protection that journalists currently enjoy.

Under article 28 of the Maldives constitution every citizen enjoys the right to freedom of speech and expression and nobody “shall be compelled to disclose the source of any information that is espoused, disseminated or published by that person.”

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/new-maldives-law-on-parliamentary-privilege-could-impact-journalistic-freedom

In March, Sun Online journalist Ahmed Azif was arrested by Maldivian police, who also obstructed his work while he was trying to take pictures outside the Justice Building, which is freely accessible to the public.

Although Afiz showed the police his press card they asked him to display his press card on his body. He explained to them that he didn’t wear his press card while taking pictures of criminals for example, as it could endanger him. The police ignored his explanation for not wearing his press card and arrested him.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-arrest-of-maldivian-journalist

6. Criminal defamation case in Timor Leste highlights archaic laws

A USD 150 fine and suspended sentence was imposed on two journalists after a criminal defamation case was concluded this month.

The journalists, Oscar Maria Salsinha of the Suara Timor Lorosae newspaper and Lusa Raimundos Oki of the Independente newspaper, had faced up to three years’ jail after their newspapers published reports in December 2011 and January 2012 about a traffic accident case in the District of Oecusse. The reports alleged the public prosecutor dealing with the accident case had accepted a bribe in the course of his duties relating to the investigation and prosecution of the driver of the motor vehicle involved in the collision.

At the journalists’ trial, the judge said the prosecution had failed to prove that the reports by the two journalists had harmed the prosecutor materially. Despite this, the judge gave the pair a one-year suspended jail sentence and ordered them to pay a fine of $150 each. The prosecution said it would appeal the decision.

See: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/en/articles/timor-leste-must-remove-criminal-defamation-from-its-statues-ifj

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