CJA E-letter
from the Commonwealth Journalists Association www.commonwealthjournalists.com

Headquarters: c/o Canadian Newspaper Association, 890 Yonge Street Suite 200, Toronto ON, Canada M4W 3P4
President: Hassan Shahriar (Bangladesh) shahriar@bangla.net
Vice-presidents: Chris Cobb (Canada) cobsun@magma.ca
Martin Mulligan (Europe) emsquared2002@yahoo.ie
Executive director: Bryan Cantley cantleyb@commonwealthjournalists.com
Newsletter editor: David Spark david.spark@o2.co.uk, who would like to hear from you.

Views expressed in this newsletter are those of contributors, not the CJA

The CJA thanks the Commonwealth Foundation for its financial support


Issue No 34 January 2011

Murder, violence against Pakistani reporters goes on

Murder and violence against journalists in Pakistan remain a feature of the Commonwealth media scene. Fauzia Shaheen of CJA Pakistan points out how vulnerable are journalists in reporting the conflicts scattered round the country.

Sultan Mehmood Chandio, a Sindhi TV journalist and president of the Mirpurkhas Press Club, was shot dead outside his home on December 5. He left behind a wife and six children. He was earlier a local political activist.

Journalists from Hyderabad, Sukkur and other Sindh towns demonstrated against the murder. The following day, two journalists were killed by suicide bombers in Ghalanai in a tribal agency. They both left families behind.

A young Baluchi journalist, Abdul Hameed Hayatan, was kidnapped near the port city of Gwadar on October 25. He was found on November 18, 40 kilometres away, shot in the head and chest..

A student was found dead beside him, along with the message ‘Eid present for the Baluchi people’. The Pakistani authorities and various militias are engaged in a struggle with Baluchi nationalists. Hayatan supported the nationalists.

Near Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on September 4, men in black uniforms and Land Cruisers seized, stripped and beat Umar Cheema of The News. He had written critical articles about the government, the army and intelligence agancies.

In October, two freelances writing for Urdu magazines were among ten people who died in a bombing at a Karachi shrine. They visited the shrine weekly.

Mob attacks ex-minister’s home in PPP row with TV

By Faryal Najeeb

Pakistan witnessed another attack on free speech in October. Protesters from the ruling Pakistan People’s Party mobbed the home of ex-information minister Sherry Rehman. The dispute stemmed from a bitter and offensive between Geo TV and the PPP. The PPP banned members from dealing with Geo as a result.

A few days later, Sherry Rehman appeared on Geo’s Capital Talk. She said she never imagined that appearing on a talk show would result in violence against her home, especially as PPP members had appeared on all TV channels.

Pakistanis were shocked by the protest’s intensity – Rehman’s effigy was burnt.

Keep an eye on The Gambia, CJA UK tells ministers

CJA UK members, meeting a small group of Gambians in London in October, called for The Gambia to be put back on the list of countries scrutinised by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group because of human rights violations. CJA UK is concerned at a climate of fear. It believes media freedom cannot be said to exist.

New campaign stands up for African journalists

The Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda has become vocal and active, claiming credit for the release of a detained Radio Simba journalist, Arafat Nzito, in November. Nzito was seized by four men in a Toyota car. Police and security men denied knowledge. HRNJ says it later found he had been detained by the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force. HRNJ brought a case for habeas corpus and Nzito was dumped in a Kampala suburb after eight days.

New voices speak for Africa – and the Caribbean

Issa Mansaray from Sierra Leone and two other editors are recruiting reporters and interns for The AfricaPaper, a bi-weekly and website which they hope will be the voice of the African continent. Its focus is on serious journalism, it encourages investigative reporting, it is based in the United States and published by the Africa Institute for International Reporting. E-mail: theafricapaper@yahoo.com and africapaper1@hotmail.co.

Dr Kris Rampersad launches in January a new service on Caribbean issues. E-mail: krismaco2002@yahoo.com

Row over media big beasts lobbying for phone spectrum

Many New Delhi-based media personalities have figured in tapes leaked to the Internet that show them lobbying politicians and businessmen to influence decisions.

The contexts here are appointments of government ministers and a raging controversy over allotment of 2G spectrum to telecommunications companies. Minister A. Raja stepped down earlier following charges of irregularities that cost the exchequer an estimated $1.5 billion.
Parliament’s work was stalled for several days as the Opposition demanded a probe by members of both Houses.

The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) asked: Did well-known journalists -- in conversations with a lobbyist in contact with former communications minister Raja -- commit a breach of journalistic propriety? Issues of propriety and structural reforms in the media were fiercely raised at a seminar Editors as Power Brokers organised by the Foundation of Media Professionals last month.

Concerning the recorded conversations of journalists that have appeared in two weeklies and are doing the rounds of the Internet, opinions varied. Panellists termed it indiscretion, inappropriateness or "crossing journalistic propriety and lakshman rekha (boundaries)."

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, an independent journalist and member of the Press Council, said that journalists who interact with the rich and powerful can develop delusions of grandeur. "It is a psychological problem... We are at best bit players in the drama...I do not think the media has the power to influence ministerial appointments," he said.

Veteran journalist B.G. Verghese said journalists keep contacting all kinds of people and can tantalise them with information to draw them out. "But there is a lakshman rekha [limit]," he said.

Manu Joseph from Open magazine, which first published the contents of tapes, said they decided not to contact the people mentioned, as "we understood the kind of pressure that would be on us. Some publications wanted to run {the story} but phone calls came. The media blackout of the story -- after it appeared in the two weeklies -- speaks for itself."

He said journalists were like artists. Dignity was the most precious asset of an artist. "Integrity is basic."

Krishna Prasad from Outlook said that his magazines had carried part of the contents of the tapes, but its website had the who;e conversations. "We basically stuck to the 2G story.”

Amit Goel from The Pioneer said that corruption was not a new phenomenon. But that did not mean that no action be taken when evidence came out. Vivian Fernandes of CNBC TV-18, who moderated the discussion, said that there was not enough criticism of the media by the media.

Questions were also raised about the powers of editors, about democracy of opinion in news organisations and about editors becoming the hand-maidens of owners.

India trains Rwandan journalists

Fifteen journalists from Rwanda got four weeks training in October/November at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi. Mahendra Ved, president of the CJA’s India chapter who opened the course, pointed to the internet link being established between educational and health centres in India and Africa. The course was sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Times of India man pleads passionately for Burmese freedom

A CJA-sponsored talk-in on Burma was optimistic about its future after the recent elections. Former Burmese MP Dr Tint Swe thought Dr Suu Kyi’s release a sign that the generals felt they could not achieve national reconciliation without her. Bhaskar Roy of the Times of India made a passionate plea for support for the democratic movement for a free Burma.

British coverage of other countries has diminished

Leading British newspapers carry less foreign coverage than 30 years ago, even though they have more print space and carry more stories in total, reports Britain’s Media Studies Trust. A year or so ago, a broadcaster, Phil Harding, made a similar report about television.

The MST study looks in detail at four dailies, The Guardian and The Daily Mirror (foreign stories down a third), and The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail (down a half). However, the papers have maintained the number of foreign stories on front pages since 1989. Foreign coverage in the Telegraph and Guardian is also sustained by multi-page foreign sections.

There is no longer the Cold War to give foreign coverage a point of reference. Coverage of India and China has not grown as it might have done. Foreign stories are increasingly UK-related – at the Telegraph this trend has been attributed to the purchase of the paper by the Barclay Brothers.

Stationing journalists abroad is costly, so their numbers have dwindled, and the amount of well-informed, level-headed coverage has dwindled with them. Campaigners, especially non-government organisations, have acquired new influence. NGOs with a special case to make about foreign countries write for the UK newspapers and provide information and facilities for UK journalists.

And there are new foreign-based suppliers of foreign news. Googlenews provides a conduit to Britain for news suppliers from all over the world. But the British read little of their foreign news on the internet.

Fewer full-time correspondents mean fewer scoops, a gap suddenly filled, if in small measure, by the WikiLeaks website with its access to material embarrassing to governments.

On the plus side, some papers such as the Financial Times and the New York Times find that foreign coverage pays. Some coverage, on the BBC for instance, is paid for from public funds. New international subjects such as the environment and global warming create new demand.

An ancient relic springs back to life

After five years of research, writing and revision, the fourth edition of CJA Newsletter editor David Spark’s book Practical Newspaper Reporting has just been published. (Amazon price £20.89 a copy). It first came out in 1966, when half was written by Geoffrey Harris, then editor of the Harrow Observer.

The fourth edition nearly ended before it began. The original publisher, a branch of Heinemann, gave up newspaper books soon after a new edition of ‘Practical Newspaper Reporting’ was suggested. Routledge and the Oxford University Press both declined to step in. So, at first, did the other leading UK publisher of media books, Sage Publications. However, Sage’s nay-saying commissioning editor left a month later; and his successor Mila Steele decided in favour, brushing aside the argument that she should not be reviving an ancient relic.

As the new publisher, Sage wanted a completely new book. David Spark had to rewrite every chapter, bring in new examples and quotations, and deal with the increased importance of religion as well as the internet. Moreover, there was a lot of new ground to cover, for eager, highly educated journalist-readers, in Britain and the English-speaking world. Experts quoted in the book include N.Ravi of The Hindu and Nigerian educator Dayo Duyile.

Martin Mulligan of the Financial Times reports that there are copies – of earlier editions -- in the chief news-agency office in Beijing

News from round the Commonwealth

AUSTRALIA

Northern Territory police in November secretly accessed a reporter’s phone records to try to find the source of a story about a police raid.

INDIA

India’s battles with Maoists and others in eastern India have led to big trouble for journalists seeking to cover the local news or, in one case, to protect colleagues against insurgent threats. Three reporters got death threats in December from government supporters in Chhattisgarh. A Tehelka websiite reporter was charged for pointing to flaws in a case against an alleged bomber. Another reporter was accused of sedition after attending a tribal peoples’ convention.

NIGERIA

The federal government has given the go-ahead for community radio.

PAKISTAN

A well respected veteran journalist at the Financial Daily, Jamil Ahmed Siddiqui, was knocked down and killed by a car on October 4.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists says that 18 newspapers and broadcasters have dismissed a total of 850 employees during the financial crunch of the past six months.

The authority regulating the media has been criticised for taking on 60 new managers, mostly without advertising the posts. To help pay for them, it is alleged to have cut medical cover.

SIERRA LEONE

Four journalists were detained in December when they pursued allegations of fraud at the Ministry of Lands. The minister accused them of possessing a classified document illegally.

SINGAPORE

The High Court sentenced 76-year-old British journalist Alan Shadrake in November to six weeks in prison for contempt. In a book about the death sentence called Once a Jolly Hangman, Shadrake had questioned Singapore courts’ impartiality.

SRI LANKA

Defence Secretary and President’s brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is engaged in a libel tussle with the Sunday Leader, concerning articles published when Lasantha Wickrematunga, who was murdered in January 2009, was The Leader’s editor. The case concerns aircraft purchases and faulty identity cards. No one has been charged with Wickrematunga’s murder nor with that of Mayilvaganam Nimalarajan, a leading Tamil journalist murdered ten years ago.

Men armed with iron rods and clubs attacked three journalists covering the homecoming of New Left Front leader Wickremabahu Karunaratne in December. In the UK, Dr Karunaratne condemned the erosion of law and media freedom in Sri Lanka. The government called his speeches ‘traitorous’.

ZIMBABWE

President’s wife Grace Mugabe and bank governor Gono are suing The Standard for £10 million over a WikiLeak accusing them of being involved in diamond trafficking. Meanwhile, the Standard’s editor faces jail for “false statements” about postponement of police promotion exams.

The CJA’s executive committee

Caroline Jackson South-East Asia
Lance Polu Pacific
Syed Belal Ahmed UK
Newton Sibanda Southern Africa
Alice Drito East Africa
Mahendra Ved India
Fauzia Shaheen Pakistan
Farid Hossein Bangladesh
Champika Liyanaarachchi Sri Lanka
Co-opted members: Derek Ingram, Rita Payne, David Spark, UK; Murray Burt, Canada


Our thanks

We once again thank our news sources including Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, the Centre for Independent Journalism (Malaysia), the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Freedom of Expression Institute (South Africa), the Free Media Movement (Sri Lanka), the Human Rights Network for Journalists – Uganda, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the Inter American Press Association, the International Federation of Journalists, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, International PEN, the International Press Institute, Journaliste en Danger (Africa), the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (Australia), Media for Democracy in Nigeria, the Media Foundation for West Africa, the Media Institute (Kenya), the Media Institute of Southern Africa, Media Rights Agenda (West Africa), the Pacific Islands News Association, Pakistan Press Foundation, the Rural Media Network Pakistan, Reporters Sans Frontieres, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance and the World Association of Newspapers.