Reporter at Radio Paila FM Bal Kumar Sharma was threatened while covering an event on August 27. The incident took place in Jajarkot, Karnali Province.
According to Freedom Forum representative for the province Laxmi Bhandari, Sharma had livestreamed an event organized at Nepal Bank, Jajarkot premises at around 10 pm on the FM's social media page. He also took few pictures and videos of the event before leaving the venue.
Then the police officers stopped him and threatened to delete the recordings.
Quoting reporter Sharma, Bhandari said that police officers forced him to unlock his mobile to check whether the senior police officers were captured in the recordings. However, after Sharma showed them the recordings he was allowed to leave the place without deleting them.
Following this, on August 28, National Human Rights Commission Province office team met with reporter Sharma and facilitated discussion among the reporter and police persons.
Freedom Forum is concerned over police intimidation to the journalist. FF appreciates the NHRC's effort to address the case through a mutual understanding among journalist and police persons, thereby ensuring that the officers become aware of journalists' rights.
For more,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np