Journalist with the National News Agency Shankar Pahadi received threat while reporting in Sarlahi on January 10. Sarlahi lies in Province 2 of Nepal.
Reporter Pahadi told Freedom Forum that Mayor of Haripur Municipality Jamaruddin Mansoor threatened him while reporting on status of Primary Health Care center the construction of which is pending for long. Mansoor warned Pahadi of thinking before entering the municipality premises or bear consequences.
Earlier, journalists in the district had covered story about municipality office's accountant Bhupendra Kumar Singh being caught red-handed while taking bribe from service seeker. Following this, Mayor Mansoor blamed journalists for defaming his place and threatened them to take care while entering his municipality premises.
Freedom Forum condemns the threat issued to reporter for doing his duty. While Mayor is a responsible authority to ensure transparency in the public service delivery, threatening journalists for exposing crime and corruption is sheer violation of press freedom and citizen’s right to information.
Hence, FF urges the concerned authority to take his statement back and cooperate journalists to fight corruption at the municipality.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np