It is laudable that police have arrested the gang which issued death threat on journalist Kamalesh Mandal of Saptari district.
Those arrested are Hari Prasad Sharma, Rajan Kumar Sharma and Raj Kumar Saha from Bhramarpur VDC in the district. They were held by the police in the night of June 22.
Earlier, bearer of the mobile (9817892788), Chandreshwor Mahashet, was already held in this connection. The death threat was issued over the mobile phone.
Reporter with the Rajdhani daily and Avenues Television from Mahottari, Mandal, was issued death threat on June 17 over the news he wrote about the bomb blast occurred in Dhanusha.
Over the phone they had threatened journalist Mandal of life and destroying everything he had.
Such prompt action, the Freedom Forum believes, helps check growing impunity and makes journalists realize security. Also, with the action on perpetrators, the self-censorship can not mount among journalists. Therefore, Freedom Forum urges the police administration to take necessary action on the arrested ones.
Previously,
Kamalesh Mandal, a reporter with the Rajdhani daily and Avenues Television from Mahottari, a district in the southern plain, was issued death threat on June 17 by an unknown person over the news he wrote about the bomb blast occurred in Dhanusha.
Journalist Mandal who is also the editor of a local Mahottari weekly told the media monitoring desk of Freedom Forum that he was threatened of life by an unknown person. He added that the person threatened of destroying everything he had and killing him because he (unknown person) had known well about him. He warned not to write any more news about the blast, according to journalist Mandal.
It is the violation of press freedom and journalist's right to write on issues of public concern. Also, it is the attack on people's right to information. Such incident are responsible for growing self-censorship among Nepali journalists.
Freedom Forum condemns the incidents and urges strongly the local administration to provide security to journalist Mandal to fend off possible attack on him.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022