A cadre of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Pratap Jaishee, threatened of action on Harihar Singh Rathaur, reporter with the Kantipur daily from Jajarkot, a mountainous district in the mid-western region of Nepal, on January 1, 2013 over a news story he wrote about forest encroachment in the district.
Talking to Media Monitoring Desk of the Freedom Forum on January 2, journalist Rathaur said, "CPN-Maoist cadre Jaishee threatened me of attack, reasoning I wrote news about their illegal activities."
According to him, he had reported the news about encroachment of forest by the party cadres and raising huts there.
It is a blatant violation of press freedom, journalists' right to report and citizen's right to information.
Freedom Forum condemns the incident and urges the concerned authority to fend off any untoward incident. Also, the Maoist party needs to teach its cadres about the value of media freedom which is an essential to democratic state.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022