Nepal

Freedom Forum has expressed concern over the treatment suffered by journalists in Sarlahi Sarlahi, Mid-Terai district, on January 2. Earlier in the day, sugarcane farmers had organised a protest across the East-West highway to demand a non-reduction in the minimum price of sugarcane over the previous year. The farmers had erected barriers on the highway to prevent entry of any vehicle during the...

Nepalese journalist Shreedeep Rayamajhi is being subjected to violent attacks and continuing threats in connection with his online reporting, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Rayamajhi told CPJ that he began receiving threatening emails from an unknown sender in June, warning him to stop writing and to erase his profile from online news outlets. The email's...

Devi Prasad Dhital alias Hemraj, the chairman of community radio Tulsipur FM, in the western Nepal district of Dang, has been murdered. Shot in the chest on Thursday, he died after being rushed to a hospital in Tulsipur, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) has reported. Dhital was shot Thursday evening while travelling on a motorcycle. After bringing him down with their first shot, his killers shot...

(FNJ/IFEX) - Police interfered and arrested 25 journalists at a demonstration organized by the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) Kathmandu chapter from the Southern Gate of Singhadurbar, Nepal Government's Secretariat, on 15 November 2007, at 9:30 a.m. (local time). The demonstration was organized to protest against continuous attacks on and intimidation of journalists, demanding action be...

(FNJ/IFEX) - The body of murdered journalist Birendra Kumar Shah was found at around 2:00 p.m. (local time) on 8 November 2007 in Dumarwana village, near Tangiya colony in Bara district, about 160 kilometres south of Kathmandu. Binod Pyakurel, president of FNJ's Bara district chapter, said the police administration informed him that the body was found buried at a place called Bhaimathghat in the...

(FNJ/IFEX) - Maoists threatened and attacked three journalists in Rukum in response to news published recently in the local weekly "Jantidhara". Narayan Shah, president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists' (FNJ) Rukum chapter, received a death threat from Raj Kumar Sirpahi "Subodh", a cadre of the Maoist-aligned Young Communist League (YCL), on 30 September 2007 and from Maoist District...

(FNJ/IFEX) - Bhasa Sharma, treasurer of FNJ's Baglung district chapter, was attacked by a group of youths led by Khim Bahadur Purja, of Sukhaura village, Baglung district, in central Nepal, on 23 October 2007. The group broke into Sharma's house at night and beat her. They also attacked her with a "khukuris" - a sharp weapon. Her mother, Harimaya Sharma, and brother, Pawan, sustained injuries in...

Reporters Without Borders calls on the government to redouble its efforts to obtain the release of Birendra Shah, a journalist who was kidnapped in the Bara region on 5 October. “The authorities and the leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) must do everything possible to ensure that Birendra Shah is rescued,” the organisation said. “The absence of any news about Shah is very...

The kidnapping of a Nepali journalist has highlighted the dangers for reporters covering the fragile peace process of the Himalayan state. The former rebel Maoists have been blamed for the abduction and other attacks against the press, but Nepal's media have also been threatened by militant groups in the country's south. Liam Cochrane reports from Kathmandu. There has been no word from the radio...

(CPJ/IFEX) - NEW YORK, October 12, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is increasingly concerned about the fate of missing journalist Birendra Shah as political pressure mounts in Nepal to find him. CPJ called for the release of Shah, who reports for Nepal FM, Dristi Weekly, and Avenues TV, on Wednesday. He was abducted by local Maoist cadres in Bara district in central Nepal, according to...