Tibits from the region

Questioning the accuracy of an editorial in the weekly Nayen, published from Ramechhap in eastern Nepal, Maoist cadres recently threatened to break the legs and spine of the paper's chief editor, Nawaraj Pathik. The editorial in question had highlighted Maoist interference and bribery in the tendering of contracts in the district. Well, nobody likes to be falsely accused of crimes, and the Maoists are undoubtedly doing the public a service by encouraging accurate reporting. And now, Chhetria Patrakar has some conclusive evidence that bribery is indeed not the Maoists' preferred method of getting things done.

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The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), the country's national television broadcaster, now looks set to be run like a military operation. The Colombo government has recently appointed Major General Sunil Silva, a retired army officer, to watch over the troubled corporation. The iron hand is likely to come down heavily on striking staff, who have been demanding a halt to what is being described as ongoing intimidation by unknown people. Certainly additional protection was required from some quarter: on 27 December SLRC news director T M G Chandrasekara was reportedly assaulted by Labour Minister Mervyn Silva. Has Major General Silva been going over the reports?

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On 20 March, Osama bin Laden celebrated the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed by calling on Muslims to kill cartoonists and other "blasphemers" who dared to publish cartoons perceived as insulting to Islam. Bin Laden stated that he regards such cartoons as part of Pope Benedict XVI's "crusade" against Islam. In response to the recent republishing of the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard's 2006 images of Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban, the five-minute audio message warned Europeans of retribution. He did not specify any target or other details on what this could entail, however. The message was disseminated on a militant website, with a frozen image of bin Laden aiming an AK-47. Over this, he cryptically intoned, "The response will be what you see and not what you hear, and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our messenger of god."

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Chhetria Patrakar's heart warms to small publications that survive in this mega-media market. As such, special mention needs to be made of an important predecessor to the Himalayan avatar of Himal, before it changed to its current Southasian format in 1996. Pahar, the journal brought out by the People's Association for Himalaya Area Research (PAHAR), is currently celebrating its 25th year of publication. PAHAR is a non-profit organisation that works to raise awareness about the environment of the Himalaya, while also bringing together scientists, social activists and common people in the attempt. To mark its quarter-century of publishing, PAHAR is organising a programme at which historian Ramachandra Guha will deliver a lecture on "War and Peace in the Himalaya", which sounds very interesting. Badhai ho, PAHAR!

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The United Nations, too, appears to be borrowing the Maoists' favourite method of persuasion. Journalists who arrived at the site of the unfortunate UN Mission in Nepal helicopter crash, which went down on 3 March in Bethan village in central Nepal, were said to have been mistreated by UNMIN staffers. These officials allegedly attempted to prevent journalists from taking photos, and later tried to delete the shots that the photographers had managed to click. Afterwards, the head of UNMIN, Ian Martin, explained that the staff had simply asked the journalists to refrain from taking photos until the bodies of the 10 deceased were covered. The intrepid journalists who rushed to the spot of the crash could probably do well with a dose of sensitivity, but the UNMIN denial that reporters were manhandled seems feeble.

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News of the anti-media and anti-independence nature of judiciary actions in Pakistan has long since ceased to surprise CP. On 3 March, Pakistani police told television journalists to halt the live coverage of prominent lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan's speech to his peers in the Sindh High Court. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists subsequently called for another 'Black Day' to be held a week later in protest of the blockage, and journalists across the country to stand up against anti-media laws in Pakistan. As such, on 10 March, unions and press clubs throughout Pakistan hoisted black flags over their buildings and offices, to express their solidarity with Pakistani lawyers' yearlong struggle for democracy and rule of law.

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It takes little to set the Burmese military on your trail. Prominent Burmese blogger and Internet-café owner Nay Phone Latt is currently facing a possible seven-year jail term after being arrested under the Emergency Provision Act in January. A member of the banned National League for Democracy (led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi), his only crime appears to have been blogging about the hardships that Burmese youth face in the iron cage of Internet censorship, especially since the Saffron Revolution of September 2007. But his arrest does not mean that the issues being highlighted by Nay Phone Latt have gone away. Bloggers of the world must unite, and support Latt as a voice of the people!

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Even as we applaud the tenacity of small magazines and their editors, CP mourns the demise of the institution of the independent editor in India. The commercialisation of the media industry has increasingly led newspapers to base their content not on the creative ideas of editors, but on the market-driven tactics of proprietors. This trend has been starkly reflected by the recent unceremonious sacking of Mubashar Jawed Akbar, founder-editor of the Asian Age. Of late, the paper had been taken over by the Deccan Chronicle group, and CP hears that the political aspirations of the group's chairman, Venkattram Reddy, might have had something to do with the sacking of the redoubtable Akbar.

According to the rumour mill, Reddy axed Akbar in exchange for a promised Rajya Sabha seat, purportedly due to the latter's anti-government stances, especially with regards to the US-India civilian nuclear deal. Such views had evidently long annoyed Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi. But in what can only be called an unpardonable act of discourtesy, Akbar was not even officially informed about the decision. On his way to the office he received a text message telling him to check the masthead of the day's paper. Then, he suddenly found his name, simply, missing. But CP is sure that a figure such as MJ cannot be put down for long: he will surely move on to another creative venture.

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Joining the likes of Tamil Nadu political leaders Jayalalitha and M Karunanidhi, the Shiv Sena is now planning the launch of its very own channel. The Sena broadcast, to be in Marathi and Hindi, will also be called Saamana, like the group's print mouthpiece. The new channel is expected to be up and broadcasting within six months. CP is informed that, with a newspaper, website and now two channels now under its belt, the Shiv Sena is set to spread the party's philosophy among the masses the hi-tech way. The Indian airwaves seem to be turning distinctly saffron.

– Chhetria Patrakar