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Association of Press Freedom Activists (APFA) Bhutan

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The Association of Press Freedom Activists (APFA) Bhutan is an exile press-freedom group of Bhutanese refugee journalists, based in Kathmandu, which says it was founded on 3 May 2004. It published The Bhutan Reporter and ran apfanews.com, and international press bodies cited its reports on Bhutan between 2007 and 2009.

The Association of Press Freedom Activists (APFA) Bhutan is an organisation of exiled Bhutanese journalists that campaigns for press freedom and freedom of expression in Bhutan. It describes itself as non-profit, apolitical and independent, with an office in exile in Kathmandu, and says it was established on 3 May 2004, World Press Freedom Day.[1] Al Jazeera described it in 2007 as having been established in the refugee camps of eastern Nepal.[2]

APFA published the camp newspaper The Bhutan Reporter, ran the website apfanews.com and issued reports on media conditions in Bhutan. Between 2007 and 2009 the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) cited it as a source on Bhutanese press cases. Its website has carried no new material since February 2012.

Founding and people

APFA's own account says it was formed by young people concerned about press freedom and the democratisation of Bhutan, but it does not name founders or officers.[1] Its annual press freedom report for 2009–10 lists I. P. Adhikari as editor and Vidhyapati Mishra as coordinator.[3] The editor of The Bhutan Reporter in 2007 and 2008 was T. P. (Thakur) Mishra.[2][4] See T. P. Mishra and Indra Adhikari.

Publications

The Bhutan Reporter was a monthly that began in 2004 with a print run of 1,000 copies. It was published by the Bhutan Media Society, which Al Jazeera and Newswatch described as APFA's publishing house, and was produced by unpaid journalists in the camps in Jhapa and Morang districts.[2][5] In March 2007 the staff said they could no longer afford the 2,000 Nepalese rupees a month needed to print it. After the appeal was published by Media Helping Media, the World Association of Newspapers offered on 6 March 2007 to sponsor the paper for three months.[2] In 2008 it had 23 camp correspondents and still missed issues for lack of funds.[4]

apfanews.com carried news, commentary and PDF issues of the paper. Its archive runs from May 2006 to 20 February 2012.[6] APFA also ran a weekly radio programme, Saranarthi Sarokar (शरणार्थी सरोकार, "refugee concerns"), on an FM station in Kathmandu.[1]

Reports. On 2 May 2007 APFA released Silenced and Controlled, a report on press freedom in Bhutan in 2006–07 that criticised the draft constitution and media legislation.[7] Its 2009–10 report, Diminutive Progress, was released on 3 May 2010 in a print run of 1,000 copies. It covered a draft government advertising policy and managerial interference in the editorial content of Bhutan Times and Bhutan Today.[3][8] APFA says it contributed two Bhutan chapters to the IFJ's annual South Asia press freedom report.[1]

Advocacy record

On 27 June 2007 the IFJ condemned the blocking of the website bhutantimes.com inside Bhutan, which it called "hypocritical". It based the statement on APFA's report that the Information, Communication and Media Authority (BICMA) had blocked the site on government orders.[9]

In December 2007 APFA, the Bhutan Press Union and the Bhutan chapter of the Third World Media Network said in a joint statement that Bhutan News Service journalists in the camps had been threatened after a shooting near Beldangi-I camp.[10] In May 2008 RSF condemned death threats made by members of the Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) against two BNS reporters. RSF described BNS as "a website operated by the Association of Press Freedom Activists (APFA)", and reported that APFA had called on political parties to respect journalists' rights.[11]

On 23 January 2009 the IFJ asked for leniency for Shanti Ram Acharya, who had worked for The Bhutan Reporter and had been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. It relied on APFA's account that Acharya had been arrested in January 2007 while visiting relatives in Bhutan, and on APFA's concern that he had been convicted under a law criminalising the return of exiles.[12]

Relationship to other exile outlets

A statement of 5 August 2011, later reposted by the author Lisa Napoli, said that the Bhutan Media Society would become the governing body of BNS, apfanews.com and Radio Bhutan Online. Under the arrangement apfanews.com would be kept as an advocacy site with its own editorial team, led by I. P. Adhikari in Adelaide, with Vidhyapati Mishra and Buddha Mani Dhakal as editors.[13]

Bhutan News Network (self-described)

Bhutan News Network (bhutannewsnetwork.com) describes itself as a volunteer-run news site about Bhutan and the diaspora. Its About page names I. P. Adhikari as founder and as chief editor until May 2024, and Ram Karki as the current chief editor.[14] Its earliest posts are titled "APFAnews Archive" and are backdated from August 2006 to April 2009; they reproduce items credited to "Editor" and tagged "apfanews".[15] No independent source found says whether Bhutan News Network succeeded apfanews.com, so that link is unconfirmed.

Limits and criticism

A 2008 report in In The Fray said most of The Bhutan Reporter's staff had no formal journalism training and that its stories did not always name sources. It also said the paper could not take advertising, because Nepalese law did not allow foreign-owned media to publish in Nepal.[4] Most of what is known about APFA's own activities comes from its website.

See also

References

  1. "About Us." APFANEWS (Association of Press Freedom Activists – Bhutan).
  2. "Aid offered to save Bhutan paper." Al Jazeera, 6 March 2007.
  3. Diminutive Progress: Annual Press Freedom Report 2009–10. APFA-Bhutan, Kathmandu, May 2010 (PDF).
  4. Laura Pohl, "Oppressed and still on press." In The Fray, 6 March 2008.
  5. "Bhutanese refugee newspaper dying for want of funds." Newswatch, 6 March 2007.
  6. APFANEWS, homepage (most recent post dated 20 February 2012).
  7. "Press freedom movement to continue." APFANEWS, 2 May 2007.
  8. "Annual press freedom report." APFANEWS, 4 May 2010.
  9. "IFJ describes Bhutan government's censorship of bhutantimes.com as 'hypocritical'." International Federation of Journalists, 27 June 2007.
  10. "Exiled journos under intimidation…" APFANEWS, 20 December 2007.
  11. "Two Bhutani journalists threatened with death by political activists for covering student demonstration." Newswatch, 22 May 2008 (Reporters Without Borders release).
  12. "IFJ calls for leniency for journalist jailed in Bhutan." International Federation of Journalists, 23 January 2009.
  13. "Exiled media groups team-up" (5 August 2011), reposted by Lisa Napoli as "Only for the serious Bhutan-watcher", 6 August 2011.
  14. "About BNN." Bhutan News Network.
  15. "APFAnews Archive August 2006." Bhutan News Network (dated 31 August 2006).

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