HYDERABAD: “A telephone repairman saw a press release from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lying on my fax. And within a few hours, my home was filled with security forces. I came close to being arrested that time but was spared due to a timely intervention. But I was taken into custody by police once earlier and that was due to my Tamil surname. Working as an Indian journalist based in Sri Lanka and Pakistan had separate challenges. In Pakistan, it was a restricted visa and access to information,” recalled Nirupama Subramanian, National Editor, Strategic Affairs, Indian Express, while sharing her experiences in a webinar on Friday.
The webinar was organised by the University of Hyderabad in collaboration with South Asian Women in Media, a network of women media professionals. The Department of Communication, UoH, has started a webinar series titled “Stories Without Borders — A living Archive of South Asian Women in Media.” The first webinar, conducted on Friday, was a conversation with Nirupama Subramanian and Dilrukshi Handunetti, Executive Director of the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Sri Lanka.
Subramanian covered Sri Lanka when the civil war was at its peak in the 1990s. “As I am a Tamilian, my surname has always been a point of interest at checkpoints where I had to show my identity card,” she said, narrating her reporting experiences during those turbulent times in the island nation. In Pakistan, the challenges were different in nature. “In my first year, I was summoned to the information department and told I had crossed many red lines in terms of what I did and whom I met,” Subramanian said. Renewal of the visa was an annual challenge. Besides, in Pakistan, her visa restricted her to Islamabad, with travel allowed only to Karachi and Lahore.
Even though officials were reluctant to meet her in Pakistan, she said she felt no threat from ordinary people. Despite some problems in Sri Lanka too, Subramanian never felt insecure, neither in the Tamil north nor in the Sinhalese south.
No exchange of journalists:
Both the panelists agreed that even though South Asia has a vibrant media and a strong culture of journalism, the exchange of journalists between India and Pakistan does not take place. Indian newspapers send journalists to Sri Lanka or appoint people from Bangladesh and Nepal to write for them. However, none of these countries sends correspondents to India.
“Getting a visa is a lengthy procedure for any journalist. When our governments are not ready for this exchange, we can at least ask experts in the neighbouring countries to write. Similarly, I write a column for The New Indian Express,” Dilrukshi Handunetti said.