-Update- (2023-09-27)
Reporter to www.ratopati.com Krishna Singh Dhami was issued threat for covering news on September 12. The incident took place in federal capital Kathmandu.
Freedom Forum talked to reporter Dhami on September 16 about the incident. He shared that news about Tribhuvan University providing affiliation to the colleges was published on the online on September 11. In the news, reporter Dhami stated that the university authority was forced to provide affiliation to four colleges that did not meet the standard. In line with journalistic profession and ethics, he had quoted well the news sources.
According to reporter, a political party’s student wing had forced the university to provide affiliation to those colleges.
Since then, cadres of the party wing have been calling him and writing threatening messages through multiple Facebook accounts. On September 12, a statement was issued with Party’s Chairperson Prakash C’s signature, threatening reporter Dhami and the news portal to be prepared for any consequences or apologize for publishing news.
“A central member Vikrant C also called me on my mobile and asked- why I wrote the news and who was the source. He also asked me whether I could verify the news quotes. I told him that I would not share any information about my sources. I rather suggested him to go to Press Council Nepal to complain in case he had concern over news”, said reporter Dhami.
Moreover, he shared that he informed about the incident to his colleagues in the online office. One of his colleagues talked to spokesperson of the party leader on September 15 about the incident. The spokesperson however maintained that issuing statement was a mistake and they were ready to apologize to the reporter and media. He also called them to meet to resolve the issue, Dhami added.
Later on September 25, reporter Dhami was attacked by a group of five to six people while going to his office. He received injuries on his head and body parts.
Freedom Forum condemns the threat issued and attack upon the reporter. Despite the provision that any side dissatisfied with news content could go to Press Council Nepal, issuing such threatening statement and messages against journalist and media is deplorable. It is egregious violation of press freedom.
FF strongly urges the security authority to pay heed to the security of the reporter to avoid any untoward incident.
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