Commenting on the anniversary, the Sunday Times in Australia said: “One year ago today a relatively new, highly sophisticated piece of technology and engineering, carrying 239 people disappeared without a trace … In an age when your mobile phone can tell you the exact GPS co-ordinates of which patch of dirt you’re standing on, marketing software can match your face to your dress and governments access private emails on demand, an entire aeroplane is lost and nobody knows what happened.”

Highlighting the many unanswered questions over the flight’s disappearance and the subsequent joint investigation that has failed to find the Boeing 777, the newspaper said: “Frankly, the lack of information and the distortion of what was released in the weeks that followed this catastrophe give no reason to be cheerful about the prospect of Malaysian transparency any time soon. But Australian taxpayers are running a $90 million tab on the search task force and while the bill is not as important as finding the victims, it’s everything about showing mutual respect.”

The New Straits Times in Malaysia, on the other hand, exhorted mourners to commemorate in private gatherings. “The government’s view … that there are no plans to hold any special event to commemorate the first anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is one that should be respected,” it said.

“The continued commitment by the authorities to locate the missing airplane and, hopefully, bring some form of closure to this sad episode is assuring. However, let this March 8 be a day Malaysians privately offer comfort to the families of those who were on board that flight. Those of us who may know any of the families should make an effort, in whatever way we can, to spend time with them, and share in recalling memories of their loved ones,” it said.

The other issue that triggered a firestorm of comments and debate across the world last week was the Indian government’s ban on airing a documentary on the savage gang-rape of a Delhi student in 2012. India obtained a court order banning the film, which included an interview with one of the convicted rapists, Mukesh Singh, on the grounds it risked fuelling public anger.

Commenting on the ban, the Hindu newspaper in India said: “Decisions made in the wake of a popular outcry over emotive and sensitive issues will invariably be wrong. The government’s action in getting a court order restraining the telecast of the documentary, India’s Daughter, by the British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, is a knee-jerk response...”

The Guardian branded the documentary as training “an unflinching eye on the evil deeds of one day in December 2012”, and went on to observe in its editorial that “its real service is in exposing wider prejudices”. The newspaper said: “By going to the courts to stop it from being shown, the Indian authorities reveal themselves to be unable – or unwilling – to grasp the connection between the two… It is, of course, chilling to hear him argue that ‘you can’t clap with one hand’...”