"As we stand now, Pakistan’s media continues its stratospheric expansion, but in the midst of curbs and controls and ongoing safety issues. Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are treading a precarious path to finding credible and independent spaces for the media against economic challenge and political change – one that has promisingly seen the return of journalist exiles in the case of Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, journalists in the world’s largest democracy in India are standing firm in the face of ongoing direct assaults, wage challenges and threats by governments, security forces and other political and religious powers. And sadly, Afghanistan has found itself in a new war on media as international support withdraws and the Taliban and the IS amplify their efforts at control as evidenced through the horrific suicide attack on Tolo TV workers in Kabul – the single deadliest attack on the country’s media. But perhaps nowhere has the battle for freedom of expression been as acute and brutal in the past year as Bangladesh. As we prepare to launch this report, there have been two more horrendous murders of individuals working to push the boundaries of free expression– blogger Nazimuddin Samad and editor Zulhaz Mannan. They are among seven bloggers and journalists killed in the last year and form part of a broader, sustained project of silencing being ruthlessly conducted by fundamentalists and extremists that have turned the country into a killing field for those who dare to speak with an alternate voice." (Foreword, page 4)