Reporter at Gorkhapatra National Daily from Kalikot, Premraj Simkhada, has been facing threats due to his news reporting. Kalikot lies in Karnali Province of Nepal.
Freedom Forum's representative for Karnali Province, Laxmi Bhandari, reported that a week ago, in the last week of December, he was threatened via phone calls and messages after he published news on irregularities at a local municipality.
Representative Bhandari quoted Simkhada, stating that, he received threats from relatives of Khadachakra Municipality, Kalikot's Acting Chief Abhiraj Shahi after publishing a report about a controversial appointment in the municipality.
"As soon as the reporter writes about the irregularities in the municipality, Chief's relatives send threatening voice and text messages to him via messenger", Bhandari shared, "He also mentioned that he had faced similar threats in the past when he reported that Acting Chief Shahi employed his spouse in the municipality office."
Reporter Simkhada had filed a complaint regarding the threats at Nepal Police Cyber Bureau.
Freedom Forum condemns the threats issued to reporter for news publication. It is a gross violation of press freedom. The concerned authority and the mayor's relatives must respect journalists' right to free reporting and resort to legal way for any concern over the news instead of threatening journalists.