Surkhet based reporter for a news portal, www.ratopati.com, Pankha Bahadur Shahi received several threat messages for reporting on January 1, 2022. Surkhet lies in Karnali Province of Nepal.
Talking to Freedom Forum's monitoring desk, reporter Shahi said that he had reported news entitled 'After erecting late King Birendra's statue over a night' which was published online on December 30, 2021. Following its publication, several threats and abusive messages were written on social media pages targeting him.
The messages read: "How dare you write such news? I know you very well and will not spare you."
"I was also called through many unknown numbers but I did not receive those calls. Then, I called Chief District Officer and requested for security. The officer then, asked Nepal police to register the case", shared Shahi.
Freedom Forum is concerned over the incident as it is sheer violation of press freedom. Had they any discontent over the news, they could file a complaint at the media regulatory body Press Council Nepal. Such act of issuing threats with abusive language to working journalists has also created panic among fellow journalists.
Hence, FF strongly urges the concerned authority to provide adequate safety to the working journalists in order to fend off any untoward incident on him.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np