Mayor of Dharan Submetropolitan city Harka Sampang abused reporter at Galaxy 4K Television Prakash Timsina in a program on April 26. Dharan lies in Koshi Province of Nepal.
Talking to Freedom Forum, vice-president of Federation of Nepali Journalists Sunsari chapter Ganesh Niraula shared that reporter Timsina was abused while reporting at the press conference held to discuss upon ongoing Itahari-Dharan border conflict. When the reporter tried to ask a question, Mayor Sampang asked the reporter which political party he belonged to.
Mayor Sampang refers the journalists' who write news critical to him as a 'journalist of political party', added journalist Niraula.
Freedom Forum has serious concern over the statement of a municipal chief. The people's representative should be open to criticisms and should cooperate journalists to secure free press and right to information. But the public authority's misbehaviour towards a journalist while reporting is a gross violation of press freedom.
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