Media  in South Asia faces formidable challenges and the situation represents an even more perilous frontline. From May 1, 2024, to April 30, 2025, 250 media rights violations against media workers across the South Asia region were reported.

Targeted killings  of journalists rose dramatically as violence escalated, up from eight deaths in 2023-24 to 20 killings in 2024-25, with Pakistan leading the tally with  seven journalists murdered, Bangladesh with six and India with five.

 Bangladesh had the highest total number of violations amid its national wave of  protests with at least 65 violations recorded, followed by Afghanistan with 48, Nepal with 42, and Pakistan with 34.

These are some of the  dreadful examples cited in the alarming report, titled “Frontline Democracy: Media Amid Political Churn, released by the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). 

Complexities and challenges

The report tells the story of how journalists and their representative bodies continue to fight for journalists’ rights, wages and working conditions and how they are also standing up against increasingly authoritarian governments and calling them to account.

It analyses the complexities and challenges inherent in the media industry that is endeavouring to find level footing and steady ground in democratic spaces riven by political challenges and massive economic and civil disruption.

The lengthy report outlines how the ongoing collapse of revenue streams and the fact that too many media houses remain compromised and over reliant on revenue from government advertising means that too many journalists also remain unpaid while still working. It highlights the danger that the rise and rise of the growing gig economy continues to have a profound impact on the way journalism in South Asia is being created and shared.

Loss of traditional media jobs

While it is generating incredible opportunities for investigations, storytelling, monetisation and using secure channels to publish vital news in closed political spaces, it is also leading media workers into a world of  contracts, precarious work, freelancing and unstable work with little or no job security.

At the same time, the increasing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the industry continues to play out, destroying traditional media jobs with a flick of a key.

The report suggests that with misinformation and disinformation now the number one risk facing the world, the imperative is evident that South Asia’s media must remain the watchdog to these fragile democracies.

And journalists must continue to play the crucial role in shaping public opinion, disseminating facts and vital information, and holding the power to account, while also supporting the process of political participation and public mobilisation, it argues.

Access to information, one of the lodestones of credible journalism, has been steadily declining in various parts of the region.

South Asia witnessed tremendous change over the past year – via transformation effected through electoral ballots, as well as feet on the ground. The report points to the pivotal moment in South Asia’s political and civic landscape, highlighting the power of democratic engagement and civil society. The combination of electoral shifts and grassroots mobilization reflects deep public demand for accountability and reform.

Student movements and everyday citizens were among those leading phenomenal pushbacks against entrenched authoritarian regimes, voting out incumbent governments and expressing unified dissatisfaction with misgovernance, corruption and overreach. Amid the upheaval, the media played a critical role in amplifying people’s aspirations and speaking truth to the powerful.

Question of financial viability

South Asia’s media is at a crossroads, where its democratic function as a watchdog is at odds with its struggle for financial viability. While the ever-expanding digiverse continues to offer immense opportunities for journalism and its potential to expose corruption and human rights violations as well as challenge mainstream and official narratives, the big question remains – how does the media sustain itself? With so much of South Asia’s media also in the midst of a fight for financial survival due to the drastic industry transformation, the stakes for democracy remain exceedingly worrying, concludes the report which is a must for anyone interested in the region.

Special reports cover the countries of the region -  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

What the past year has shown, however, is that South Asia’s people are neither passive nor powerless. When pushed too far, they respond, not with silence, but with strength. And that, more than any policy or politician, is the real story of this transformation taking place.

To  mark World Press Freedom Day observed yearly on 3 May the IFJ on behalf of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network  released its 23rd annual South Asia Press Freedom Report 2024-2025.

(The author is an Indian journalist who is a long time resident in Brussels. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached nawabbk98@gmail.com )