Agandhar Tiwari, a reporter for Rajdhani daily in western Myagdi district, received death threat from the staffer of District Hospital, Myagdi on 11 August, 2010 in Nepal.
Journalist Tiwari was threatened while he was taking snapshots of x-ray machine belonging to district hospital in course of reporting. Arun Kumar Mandal, claiming himself an in-charge of x-ray department, threatened journalist Tiwari saying that he could do anything if news report about the x-ray department will be brought to public. However, according to journalist Tiwari, Mandal was there without hospital uniform and identity card. "Though I showed my press pass, he didn’t bother to see it and kept on threatening", Tiwari said after the incident. Earlier, Mandal had warned Harikrishna Gautam, a reporter for News24 Television channel saying Gautam may face bad consequence if carried the news report.
Freedom Forum-Nepal denounces the incident and calls upon local authority to provide security to journalists and take immediate action against the culprit without any delay. Since the constitution of Nepal has guaranteed freedom of reporting in the public places, this kind of threat from government official is against the notion of press freedom. The Forum also urges Mandal not to recur such incident in the days to come.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022