By WILLIAM CRAWLEY
Dr David Page, senior fellow of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, former editor and manager in the BBC South Asian Services, and a driving force of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, has died aged 80.
He joined the BBC in 1972 as Programme Organiser of the BBC Urdu Service. He had graduated from Merton College Oxford and spent a year teaching at Edwardes College Peshawar before completing a D Phil thesis at Oxford on politics in pre-1947 Punjab’, subsequently published as Prelude to Partition (1982).
He left the BBC after a reorganisation of the South Asian services in 1994. having played a big part as a senior manager not only in developing the journalistic and cultural focus of the Urdu Service but also in setting up the BBC Pashto Service in 1981 following the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. He was deeply interested in and knowledgeable especially about contemporary Pakistan and Afghanistan and their histories.
After leaving the BBC he was an active Trustee of the Charity Afghanaid. He co-authored with myself a book on the explosive development of television services in South Asia in the 1990’s – Satellites over South Asia: Broadcasting, Culture and the Public Interest (Sage OBIT, 2001). The book was accompanied by a documentary film titled ‘Michael Jackson comes to Manokganj,’ directed by the Indian journalist and filmmaker Nupur Basu (see Nupur’s tribute below). He later co-edited, also with myself and the Sri Lankan journalist and lawyer Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, Embattled Media: Democracy, Governance and Reform in Sri Lanka (Sage 2015).
Media Principles
In 2012, he co-authored a publication for BBC Media Action on The Media of Afghanistan: the challenges of transition. In the past several years David was closely involved in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Commonwealth Journalists Association-sponsored Media Freedom Initiative, and played a key role in drafting the Commonwealth Media Principles which were approved by Commonwealth Law Ministers.
Those Principles are on the agenda for adoption by heads of government at the upcoming CHOGM in Samoa. He was widely respected and admired by colleagues in all the fields in which he was involved. He will be greatly missed.
This tribute from the journalist and film maker NUPUR BASU, first appeared in the Indian website The Federal.
A passionate believer in media freedom, David Page was currently working on a status paper on the media for the forthcoming Commonwealth meeting in Samoa. In the passing of David Page, the media in the Commonwealth has lost a great champion and South Asia has lost a true friend.
David worked in the BBC World Service for over two decades and was directly responsible for all radio broadcasts in South Asian languages.
From 1977 to 1985, he was the Editor of the BBC Urdu Service and the Editor of the BBC’s first Pashto service in 1981. In the mid-sixties, David spent a year teaching at Edward’s College in the North East Frontier Province in Peshawar. He returned to Oxford thereafter to do his doctoral thesis on the Partition of India and later wrote the book Prelude to Partition, which was published by Oxford University Press in 1982.
Unique bi-media project
David’s interest in South Asia remained intact over the next few decades as after his BBC years, he worked along with BBC colleague and historian Dr William Crawley on the Media South Asia Project. The project involved working with over 16 researchers and journalists in South Asia for over three years before writing a book titled Satellites over South Asia: Broadcasting, Culture and Public Interest, published by Sage in 2000. This was a unique bi-media project, and while David and William wrote the book, I came on board as the director of the documentary on the same subject.
I filmed from Peshawar to Kandy in five countries – India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, and made a 57-minute film titled Michael Jackson Comes to Manikganj. David’s name opened doors in the corridors of power in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh. Thanks to him, I got a visa to travel to Peshawar in North West Frontier Province – besides Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore – where no Indian journalists are easily allowed.
The book and film were launched at various venues in New Delhi, Karachi, Colombo, Kathmandu, Dhaka, and London. They were followed by panel discussions with media honchos, media academics, and civil society, which all three of us attended.
In 2015, David Page went on to work on a book on Sri Lanka’s precarious media freedom scene. He co-edited the volume titled Embattled Media: Democracy, Governance and Reform in Sri Lanka along with William Crawley and Kishali Pinto Jayawardena.
Afghan aid
David Page remained a passionate South Asia watcher throughout his career, and his interests ranged from cricket to politics in the region. Afghanistan too was his area of interest and he worked untiringly on the Board of Trustees of Afghan Aid. In later years as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, David Page initiated and worked along with other colleagues as a member of the Commonwealth Media and Good Governance Working Group.
One memory that comes up among many others is this. After dinner strolls in bustling Mumbai near the Gateway of India, David would take local panwallahs by surprise. The tall English gentleman would ask in chaste Hindi, “Ek meetha paan dijiye memsaab ke liye” (pointing to me). After the pan was delivered, he would shower a profusion of “dhanyawads” and “shukriyas” much to the amusement of the panwallah, used to brusque customers only.
In David’s passing I lost a mentor and a compassionate friend. Shukriya, David, for being such a champion of media rights.
12/10/24
