Resolution on the News Media in SAARC Countries

Adopted at the Conference of Editors from SAARC Countries, February 9 and 10, 2007, New Delhi.

The Conference of Editors from SAARC Countries, organized jointly by the Media Development Foundation and the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of lndia, and held in New Delhi on February 9 and 10, 2007.

recalls the historical role of the independent news media in the struggle against colonialism and in nation building in several countries of South Asia;

recognizes that a free and untrammelled news media are a sine qua non for democracy and for it to take deep root, flourish, and reinvigorate itself constantly in the region;

acknowledges that the trajectory of growth of the news media in each of the SAARC countries is specific and varied and reflects the respective political, social, and cultural national contexts;

recognizes that the robust financial health and buoyant growth of the news media in South Asia are in encouraging contrast to the situation prevailing in most developed countries where the print as well as the broadcast media have come under pressure from a complexity of factors and circumstances and trends of decline or stagnation in circulation, viewership, revenues, and news operations are in evidence;

reaffirms the social responsibility of the news media and their fundamental duty to make the peoples of the region better-lnformed and empowered citizens;

recognizes the technological advances and processes of convergence and digitization that influence and shape the changing character and practice of journalism in the region;

recognizes the growing number of TV channels is some of the SAARC countries adding a new dimension to the media as a means of understanding neighbours and peoples in the region;

notes that internet use is growing, although at different rates, from a relatively low base in the SAARC countries; that online journalism and the new media are at an early stage of development in the SAARC region as a whole; and that the internet presents a challenge but also exciting opportunities to journalists and the news media in a context where the press and the broadcast media are in growth mode;

notes the challenges posed by the growing segmentation of the news media market in South Asia and the diversification of practice in the profession, spilling into the internet-enabled blogosphere and versions of citizens' journalism;

recognizes the need for the news media to evolve effective internal mechanisms to ensure that the integrity, independence, credibility, and trustworthiness expected by the people of the news media are maintained;

recognizes the need to do more in the SAARC countries to nurture and develop truly autonomous public service broadcasting that is adequately funded, is editorially independent, and is institutionally insulated from pressures from the state and the market;

acknowledges the imperative need to address quality issues in journalism and media performance in the SAARC countries and promote best practices in the profession;

acknowledges the trends towards tabloidisation, trivialization, dumbing down, and sensationalism in sections of the news media of the region and the consequent need for media criticism and serious and periodic self-reflection, and self-regulatory codes of practice;

recommends that media organizations in the region practise accountability by instituting mechanisms such as internal news ombudsmen with an independent mandate, to keep the values of accuracy, fairness, trustworthiness, and journalistic ethics in constant focus, and to reflect and articulate the legitimate demands made by the public on the functioning of the news media;

decries the continuing intimidation of, and attacks on, journalists in the region by agencies of the state, extra-constitutional authorities, self-appointed cultural custodians, religious and political press-gangs, and criminal elements in society acting in collusion with law enforcement agencies;

calls upon the state to intervene immediately and decisively in every instance to protect journalists and the media from attacks and threats from any quarter,

demands the de-criminalization of the law of defamation following the example set by Sri Lanka and treating alleged defamation as a purely civil matter;

deplores the intolerance towards and the harassment of the news media in certain cases by central and local legislatures under the guise of unfettered legislative privilege, and by the judiciary invoking criminal contempt of court powers, both tending to have a chilling effect on free and independent journalism in the region; 

urges all branches of the state as well as the citizen sector to recognize the vital functions of the news media in a democracy, and in particular their credible-information, critical, watchdog, investigative, educational, and agenda-building roles, and to play a proactive role in enabling a free media dispensation;

urges the governments of the SAARC states to bring in necessary legislation or amendments to national constitutions to make media freedom in the fullest sense an explicit, inalienable, fundamental right that cannot be tampered with in any manner;

affirms that the news media in all their diversity are a collective genre; that media freedom is indivisible; and that in the SAARC region this freedom must be made available, constitutionally and legally speaking, equally to the press, the broadcast media (radio and television), and the internet and new media;

urges the governments of the SAARC states to enact laws that actualize the right to information in each country, considering that it is an indispensable and invaluable corollary right for journalism, particularly investigative journalism, and can facilitate truthtelling, accuracy, fairness, justice, and efficiency;

recognizes the need for a legal framework for cross-media operations so that the right of the media to expand and diversify in developing media markets is reconciled with legitimate concern over media monopolies, wherever applicable, restricting the right of citizens to be better informed through better choice and pluralism;

urges the governments of the SAARC states to enable freer movement of journalists in the region by issuing multipte-entry long term visas to all bona fide journalists and other news media personnel without cumbersome restrictions on the areas they can travel to;

urges the governments of the SAARC states and distribution networks to desist from blocking wired (cable and optic fibre) or wireless (tv, radio or internet) signals carrying live content purveyed by news organizations of the region to any country or part of the region;

urges the governments of the SAARC states to dismantle all border barriers to free flow and exchange of news media products in the region;

recommends that media organizations set up news bureaux or stringerships and make other appropriate arrangements in as many countries of the SAARC region as possible so that there is a substantial, measurable enhancement of the coverage and understanding of the South Asian neighbourhood all round;

calls upon organizations of working journalists and editors, other professional associations, and media industry bodies in the various SAARC countries to enhance and intensify their interactions, discussions, and cooperative activities;

commends the valuable role being played by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) and other initiatives to bring journalists from SAARC countries together on a common platform;

calls upon journalists and media organizations in the countries of the SAARC region to maintain their independence and keep a healthy and critical professional distance from their foreign policy, security, and other official establishments as well as from vested interests of any kind, so that journalism can play an independent democratic and progressive role in making inputs into or shaping foreign and other vital national policies;

calls upon journalists and media organizations in the countries of the SAARC region to pay sustained attention to the realities, causes, and consequences of mass deprivation in the countries of the region and to systematically improve the coverage of mass deprivation, thus helping build an effective agenda for public action;

recommends that institutions of excellence for journalism education and training, imparting advanced hands-on skills as well as core professional and ethical values and media perspectives, be encouraged, with access to students from across the region;

recommends that news media organizations and institutions of journalism education in South Asia initiate research on the state of the media and publish the findings, leading to a body of original work in this field from within the region;

recommends that in the age of wall-to-wall media, a rounded media education be made part of the academic curriculum at the high school level in the SAARC countries, so that the youth of the region develop a critical awareness and perspective relating to the news media and their role in society;

proposes that editors from the SAARC countries build on the initiative of this conference and set up a dynamic and interactive website as a common forum where they can continue to converse freely with each another, learn from each other, identify issues for wider debate in civil society, and carry forward their ideas into the public realm.

proposes that this conference of editors become an annual event hosted primarily by media organizations in different SAARC countries to address issues relevant to the news media of the region.