KATHMANDU, May 4: Two incidents that occurred in the capital city Kathmandu just ahead of Press Freedom Day underline the stark reality about media and journalists in the country.
Ramesh Lamsal of state-run news agency Rastriya Samachar Samiti was brutally thrashed by a group of unidentified assailants at Nepaltaar late on Thursday night while returning home after filing news stories at his office.[break]
He received serious injuries to the face and his arms and back were covered with bruises from the kicks and punches rained on him by the assailants.
Another incident, that took place at the Supreme Court premises this week, has panicked the media fraternity.
Representatives from the government, media bodies and other sectors expressed serious concern as officials at the apex court imposed strict rules for media persons and restricted their movements within the court premises.
Minister for Information and Communications Madhav Paudel said that the incidents have drawn the government´s attention and it will study the matter seriously. "I believe that our judiciary is committed to press freedom and right to information and I hope the Supreme Court will not take any steps to curtail freedom of speech," said the minister at a function organized in Kathmandu on Friday.
Addressing the same function, CPN-UML Spokesperson Pradeep Gyawali said his party was worried and wondering "why the judiciary is becoming more intolerant in recent days".
These two incidents indicate that working for the media sector is still no plain sailing.
Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), the umbrella organization of media persons in the country, has recorded altogether 227 cases of attacks on media persons, including abductions, disappearance, intimidation and other incidents, that took place from May 2012 to April 2012.
According to FNJ, at least two journalists died in suspicious circumstances, another was murdered and yet another was disappeared last year. Similarly, 32 journalists were physically attacked, 10 lost their jobs, 42 vehicles belonging to media organisations were vandalized and 14 cases of threats and vandalism at media houses were recorded during the same period.
While voicing their worry about the lack of any signs of improvement in security for the journalistic profession, experts point out the need for journalists to maintain their professional ethics and fairness.
"We still have a long way to go in terms of abiding by the universally-accepted principles of journalism that are practiced in a full-fledged democracy," journalism professor P Kharel told Republica.
He believes that the active involvement of a large number of political party cadres in national as well as local media houses, media organizations and crucial media-related institutions has complicated matters.
He said it is mainly media persons working outside the capital that are victims of intimidation, threats and other attacks. "But records also show that the involvement of party cadres is relatively high in the outlying districts. Therefore, thorough studies are required whether most of the reported cases had taken place due to the news covered by the journalists or because of something else," he said.
He underscored the need for independently verifying the reasons behind such incidents and finding out whether correspondents and editors faced threats for any news report covered by them or for their involvements in other businesses under the guise of journalism.
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