Reporters with Nayapatrika daily, Umesh Poudel and Janardan Baral, were issued threats of attack over the news the daily published on September 11 Kathmandu. Kathmandu, the capital city lies in Province No 3 of Nepal.
Talking to Freedom Forum, Nayapatrika's bureau chief Janardan Baral said, "Before publishing the news on 'Networking business fraud through gravity currency ', I called Gyan Prasad Poudel to put his quote in the news but he threatened me not to publish the news. However, the news was published; thereafter he called Umesh Poudel by mobile at 7:30 am and threatened of using his power and connections even from 'high-level security officials' to attack them."
Gyan Prasad Paudel is a marketing chief of the networking business which is illegal in Nepal.
Again, few minutes later a person named Jitendra (saying himself a party cadre) called on my mobile and threatened, "I do not know what news you have published but GP Poudel has filed a case against journalists. So why did you write the news about him?"
The journalists complained at the Police office and provided the mobile numbers of those issuing threats of attack.
Freedom Forum condemns threats issued to working journalists over the news reporting. It is a gross violation of press freedom. Exposing illegal activities going on in society is the duty of professional journalism. Hence, FF urges concerned authority to take immediate action on the perpetrators and help ensure free and fair atmosphere of reporting for journalists. The police official must stay informed to obviate any untoward incident against the reporters.
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