An unknown person threatened Arjun Giri, editor at https://www.tandavnews.com/ (an online news portal) for publishing news on his portal on May 30. The news portal is hosted from Pokhara, Gandaki Province.
On the day of incident, Giri had published news about a local citizen's suicide case on the portal. Following this, an unknown person naming himself Ramesh Bista, Vice-president of Federation of Nepali Journalists, called on editor Giri's mobile and threatened him to delete the news or bear consequences.
The person declined the call when Giri tried to confirm whether he was really the vice-president. Later, Giri informed vice-president Bista about the incident who said he was unknown about the call.
The investigation on the case is ongoing.
Freedom Forum is concerned over the incident as it is gross violation of press freedom. There are alternate ways to express dissatisfaction over the published news content at the regulatory authority. Hence, the concerned is urged to stop threatening journalists and respect journalists' rights to free press.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np