SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2234and regularly publish press releases of militant Kashmiri groups. The authoritiesgenerally allowed foreign journalists to travel freely in Jammu and Kashmir, wherethey regularly spoke with militant leaders and filed reports on government abuses.In Assam the state government has attempted to impede criticism by filing anumber of criminal defamation charges against journalists.In October 1998, the Manipur government announced curbs on the publication ofinsurgency-related news. The publication of insurgents’ press releases, public invitationsto slain militants’ funerals, and calls to boycott Republic Day and IndependenceDay functions were prohibited. Penalties for violating the prohibition includedarrest and criminal prosecution of newspaper owners and editors, and cancellationof newspapers’ registration. These restrictions continued during the year.The Press Council of India is a statutory body of journalists, publishers, academics,and politicians, with a chairman appointed by the Government. Designedto be a self-regulating mechanism for the press, it investigates complaints of irresponsiblejournalism and sets a code of conduct for publishers. This code includesa commitment not to publish articles or details that might incite caste or communalviolence. The Council publicly criticizes newspapers or journalists it believes havebroken the code of conduct, but its findings, while noted by the press community,carry no legal weight.At the state level, regional political parties have the ability to control regionalmedia. In some instances, allegations of violence against journalists have been madeagainst state governments. According to Reporters Without Borders, on July 6, amagistrate in Sibsagar town, Assam, beat Parag Saikia, a journalist of the dailynewspaper Aji. The magistrate reportedly had summoned the journalist for publishinga July 1 article about the local authorities’ alleged involvement in corruption.The journalist later was admitted to the hospital with various injuries. BetweenJuly and August, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, state police obstructed orattacked journalists and photographers in at least 10 different cities as they attemptedto report on civil disturbances resulting from protests over power tariffhikes. The Andhra Pradesh Journalists’ Union claims that the state chief ministerof Andhra Pradesh played a role in the dismissal of the editor of the Telugu dailynewspaper Andhra Prabha. The editor reportedly was fired for publishing storiescritical of the state government’s power policy.Nonviolent pressure on journalists comes from official sources as well: the editorof the vernacular daily newspaper Naharolgi Thoudang was arrested on charges ofindulging in anti-national activities. He was released after a court ruled that theallegation was baseless. In Assam a similar incident occured as police interceptedthe editor of the largest circulating Assamese daily in April, accusing him of havingparticipated in a function organized by a militant organization. In April the AssamHuman Rights Commission requested the police to report on the detention ofAsomiya Pratidin editor Haider Hussain for visiting an ULFA camp in Bhutan; policedetained Hussain in the first week of March. The Commission cited the constitutionalguarantee of freedom of expression; Hussain was released several dayslater. Some newspapers receive more than $1.29 million (60 million rupees) annuallyin advertising revenue from the state government. The threat of losing this revenuecontributes to self-censorship by smaller media outlets, which heavily rely ongovernment advertising.In Calcutta the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) often threatensjournalists; however, as the power of the party diminishes, journalists find it easierto criticize the government. At least nine journalists were injured while attemptingto give a deputation to the director of information. The alleged assailants were stateinformation officers, government employees owing allegiance to the Marxist government.In July alleged members of the CPI(M) severely beat a team of three reportersand a cameraman of ETV, a new vernacular cable television channel. Anotherreporter was injured severely in state finance minister Asim Dasgupta’s constituencyduring municipal elections (see Section 3). On numerous occasions, CPI(M)supporters beat reporters of another Bengali cable channel, Khas Khobor. Earlierin the year, CPI(M) officially requested its supporters to boycott the channel. Thematter was resolved when a former CPI(M) activist replaced the editor.In the northeast part of the country, violence against journalists has become aproblem and results in significant self-censorship. On August 20, two unknown assailantsshot and killed Thounaojam Brajamani Singh, the editor of the ManipurNews, a daily newspaper published in Manipur. According to Reporters WithoutBorders, two men on a motorcycle followed Singh after he left the newspaper office.They overtook Singh and shot him in the head at point-blank range; Singh was theonly employee whom they targeted. Singh had received anonymous death threats onAugust 15. No one had claimed responsibility for the murder, and police investigationswere ongoing by year’s end. On August 26, militants bombed a newspaper of-VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00078 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.035 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1