The ‘freedom of expression’ as safeguarded by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 has consistently been subject
to intimidation by various social, political and economic actions in
the sub-continent of South Asian democracies in the past few years.
Lately in South Asian countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and
India the press has been attacked, journalists assassinated, threatened
and intimidated in their endeavour to uphold the principles and ethos
of freedom of press and freedom of expression. Though how dismal
the situation maybe with press freedom and freedom of expression
in South Asian countries, the new media technologies such as the
Internet, hand-held devices (cell phones, PDAs) and wireless devices,
and their applications like citizen journalism, blogs, YouTube and so
on have provided promising opportunities to uphold freedom of press
and freedom of expression in the sub-continent and elsewhere.