'Muckrakers' united

The GIJN’s Asia conference was a telling reminder of the need for investigative and data-driven journalism to strengthen democracy in the current global climate.

- Ramesh Chakrapani

WHEN Kunda Dixit, the Chief Editor of Nepali Times, addressed hundreds of journalists not in person but through video at a conference he had helped organise, it was a telling reminder of the perils and pressures that journalists are increasingly subjected to and how imperative it is to ensure that their voices are not muffled. Dixit had been hounded out of Nepal as part of a political witchhunt, which forced him to appear in a video from an undisclosed location.

Dixit’s words underscored the changed circumstances under which journalists are forced to operate even in vibrant democracies, where vested interests succeed in establishing censorship through “behind-the-scenes threats which can be even more insidious and sinister”. Nepal, which has been witness to tumultuous changes in its political structure in recent years, has been increasingly intolerant of dissent and criticism, and journalism has been under attack. The story is similar across Asia, which is home to more than half of the 20 deadliest countries for journalists since 1992.