Reporter Tolakanta Bagale of Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) from Syangja received death threats over a news report on February 12. Syangja district lies in Gandaki Province, Nepal. Bagale is also station manager at Radio Adhikhola 105.4 MHz.
Reproter Bagale told Freedom Forum that he had covered a news story on February 6 about a local woman’s efforts to protect stray dogs. “I also posted a video report of the coverage on my social media page. After that, a local businessman Surya Prasad Kafle shared abusive posts against me on his social media page Waling Nepal. While he was drunk, he also shared a video accusing me of publishing news about others’ work using his dogs. He further threatened to cut me into pieces and feed me to his dogs,” Bagale said.
“I simply wanted to highlight the good work happening in my community but he misunderstood me. I reported the incident to the local police on February 13,” he added.
Following the complaint, police arrested Kafle. He was released the next day after apologizing to the journalist and committing not to repeat such acts.
Freedom Forum is concerned over the incident. Local public should also be aware of journalists’ right to report freely, as well as the legitimate way to complain regarding published news.
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