Freedom Forum is concerned over the threat issued to correspondent at Avenues Television Sushil Pandey by a political leader on May 14 in Kathmandu. Kathmandu lies in Province 3 of Nepal.
Talking to the monitoring desk, correspondent Pandey shared, "Samajbadi Party's central member Bishnu Jung Basnet asked for a meet to talk about the recently aired interview of Deputy Prime Minister and Co-chair of the party Upendra Yadav. I suggested him to go to Press Council for any reservation on the contents."
"He then, raged shouting- who are you to suggest about Press Council to me, I better know how to handle you", Pandey further informed.
The series of attack and threats to the media have been observed following the incident where Deputy Prime Minister Yadav quit the studio of Avenues Television after misunderstanding arose between interviewer journalist Sushil Pandey and him.
The political party has also issued a threatening press release calling the Press Council to take action against the journalist or face consequences. The release also confirms that journalists' behavior towards Deputy Prime Minister was planned and intentional to defame him.
Freedom Forum believes the press release and threat have been issued to discourage the journalist and media. Hence, FF urges the concerned authority to resort the lawful way and solve the issue with understanding among both parties.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022