Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan endanger journalists, report says

The Canadian Press: Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan endanger journalists, report says: "A report by the International Federation of Journalists said threat levels to journalists also remain high in conflict-ridden areas of India's remote northeast, the Himalayan region of Kashmir and central India, where Maoist rebels have stepped up a decades-old insurgency.
The report titled 'Free Speech in Peril: press freedom in South Asia' also examines the threats and challenges faced by the media in Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives. It was released in New Delhi on Tuesday to mark World Press Freedom Day.
An upsurge in violence in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan has made the region among the most hazardous in the world for reporters, said Sukumar Murlidharan, the report's editor.
'Both sides of the conflict — the Baluch nationalist forces seeking to break free of the federal government, and the army and the paramilitary that have been deployed in strength to defeat the secessionist movement, have been known to pick on journalists with little respect for their status as noncombatants,' Murlidharan said.
He said the situation was the same in Pakistan's north, where killings, abductions and injuries from suicide bombings pose a major threat to reporters, contributing to the death of 14 journalists over the past year."