Bangladesh and South Asia

In focus

Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan evidence increasing threats to freedom of expression. Religious extremism and political unrest across the region has led government to enforce increasingly repressive legislation to silence and censor dissent in the name of security and counter terrorism. Particularly in Bangladesh and Pakistan, journalists and media workers have suffered brutal attacks and killings from armed groups, many of which have gone uninvestigated and with very few of these killings ever reaching a trial. This cycle of violence and impunity is also evident in India where a series of journalist and human rights defenders have been killed. While progress can be seen in media freedom: as Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh formulate their own media laws, civil society face the challenge of fighting threats to freedom of expression from content restrictions and other censorships which could be invoked by new laws.