New Delhi: During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, when media persons are working as an essential service whilst facing risks to their health and heightened job insecurity in the light of wage cuts and dismissals, a South Asian organisation has noted how journalists are also being subjected to “physical intimidation and arbitrariness” in the region.The South Asia Media Defenders Network (SAMDEN), a group of over 60 journalists, in a statement outlined various instances of excesses against journalists in the region.‘A pattern of official, corporate arbitrariness’ against journalistsThe group, which is anchored in the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, cited the detention of media professionals in Bangladesh, attacks on journalists in Punjab, and the dismissal of a pregnant reporter in Assam state as “part of a pattern of official and corporate arbitrariness against media in the region.”It said “these incidents raise concerns over the future of the media industry which has been battered on three fronts: concerns about health safety at a time of being an “essential service” on the frontline of the crisis; job insecurity in the light of wage cuts and dismissals as the media industry takes a hit during COVID-19, and physical intimidation and arbitrariness facing media workers internationally.”Bangladesh journalist booked under stringent law on politician’s complaintIn the case of Bangladesh, the group said that the Sheikh Hasina government had used the controversial Digital Security Act (DSA) that was passed in 2018 to arrest or charge at least 20 journalists over the past month. In one case, a senior reporter vanished in March after a politician from the governing Awami League party filed a criminal defamation case against him. He later mysteriously turned up at the India-Bangladesh border nearly two months later. Three cases were lodged against him under DSA while senior editor of Manabzamin, Matiur Rahman Choudhury, was also made an accused in the case.Also read: Backstory: When Storms and Pandemics Create Overlapping Human Disasters, What Should the Media Do?The group termed these actions “a clear and present danger to freedom of the media” and urged the Hasina government to free the arrested journalists.Editor languishing in Pakistan jailIn Pakistan, the editor and publisher of the Jang Group, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, has now completed two months in jail, the Network said. It termed the release of a video by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) last week of a jail official presenting him a bouquet of flowers as a violation of the globally accepted codes of conduct to protect people under investigation or in prison from the public eye. SAMDEN criticised the action as “breach of privacy.”Questioning the timing of the action, the Network said: “During a pandemic, a jail is the last place for a person to be, especially media professionals who are most needed at this time to provide factual, independent critical information to the public and to government as well as fearless reporting.”Many cases of atrocity against journalists in IndiaIn India too, it said, there have been several cases of media persons being targeted during the COVID-19 crisis. The Network said in Chandigarh, a journalist with the Rozana Pehredar newspaper, Major Singh Punjabi, accused two personnel of beating him on May 22. The same day, a reporter from Punjabi Jagran was charged with broad sections of the law such as obscenity, disobeying a public official and making statements which “incite the commission of an offence” for writing that a Congress party minister was following the advice of astrologers.In Uttar Pradesh, the Network said that the Sitapur district administration had filed an FIR against journalist Ravindra Saxena with the news portal Today 24, for filing a report which quoted residents of a quarantine centre as saying that they had been served bad food.In another BJP-ruled state, Gujarat, the Network said that Dhaval Patel, the editor of the news website Face of Nation, was arrested and charged with sedition for publishing a report alleging that chief minister may be replaced for mishandling the state’s response to COVID-19.Also read: Cease Harassment of Journalists for Reporting on Pandemic, Demand UnionsThe organisation also raised the issue of Prag News journalist, Ranjita Rabha from Assam, who claimed that she was forced to resign as her organisation did not have a policy of maternity leave for employees. Stating that Rabha was “three months pregnant when the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown was imposed”, the Network’s co-convener Sanjoy Hazarika demanded “her reinstatement as well as a pro-active rights policy for women employees and all staff irrespective of gender in Prag News and other news organizations.”