Reporter at a news portal saheekhabar.com, Sitaram Adhikari, was issued death threat for his news reporting in Dhading on October 19. Dhading is the neighbouring district of federal capital, Kathmandu.
Reporter Adhikari had published news entitled 'rural municipality chief fled the program venue' on the news portal, claiming a local youth club's members protested against the municipality chief and intervened the program.
After the news was published on the online, Youth Association Nepal's central member Hemanta Bhandari wrote an abusive social media post against the reporter and shared it with more than 30 people along with life-threatening messages to the reporter Adhikari.
Freedom Forum condemns the act of a youth representative against the reporter. There are other legitimate ways to show dissatisfaction over the published news rather than intimidating a journalist in public for doing his job.
Hence, FF strongly urges the security authority to ensure security to the journalist to avoid any untoward incident. The concerned leader is also urged to respect the journalists' right to free press. The journalist can also remain in contact with security agency to avoid any untoward incident against him.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np