• by Bhuwan Sharma - Asia Media Forum (kathmandu)
• Tuesday, March 09, 2010
• Inter Press Service

The climate of fear that has been growing in this Himalayan country since the murder of two media entrepreneurs and other attacks on journalists may well push them to turn to more self-censorship.

While many are used to violence never being too far away from their work, especially at the height of the 10-year Maoist insurgency, what worries journalists is the fact the culprits behind these attacks are almost always never apprehended.

Already, fear has driven the staff of ‘Janakpur Today’ newspaper, the chairman of whose publishing group was killed by unidentified gunmen on Mar. 1, to finish work as early as they can and leave the office by 6 p.m. before nightfall, says Ajit Tiwari, a journalist who reports from the eastern plains of Nepal.

The killing of the two media entrepreneurs took place less than a month from each other.

Jamim Shah, managing director of SpaceTime Network that airs Channel Nepal, a satellite TV channel, was shot dead in broad daylight on Feb. 7 here in the capital Kathmandu. Arun Singhaniya, chairman of the Today Group that publishes the popular daily ‘Janakpur Today’, was killed by unidentified gunmen in Janakpur, located 135 kilometres south-east of Kathmandu, on Mar.1.

Singhaniya’s murder was followed by a death threat against ‘Janakpur Today’ editor, Brij Kumar Yadav, the next day. On Mar. 3, another journalist, Bivek Bhattarai, was attacked with sharp weapons in Pathari of Morang district in eastern Nepal.

The chairman and editors of Kantipur publications, which publishes the largest-selling national daily ‘Kantipur’, and the English-language daily ‘The Kathmandu Post’, also received threats from unidentified groups to stop their coverage of Shah’s killing.

'Considering the law and order situation, it would be foolish to deny that Nepalese media was free of self-censorship. However, the recent high-profile murders will further impact the work of journalists, especially those working from outside the safety of the capital Kathmandu,' says Dharmendra Jha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists.

There have been 14 incidents against journalists that range from murder to threats in 2010 alone, according to the federation, an umbrella organisation of journalists in the country.

Of the 14 incidents reported this year, seven took place in the restive Tarai region, where more than half of the 109 groups, many of them armed, that the Home Ministry identified last year are operating.

Armed groups proliferated in the Tarai in the aftermath of the 2007 ‘Madhes Andolan’, an uprising demanding a separate state that stretches from the east to the west of Nepal for the people living in the plains.

A number of these groups cashed in on the political instability and dismal law and order situation after the uprising, which took place in the more open political space after the end of the Maoist insurgency and Nepal’s shift from a constitutional monarchy to a multi-party republican system in 2008. Because armed oufits operate freely in the Tarai, along the country’s border with India, it is no wonder that journalists feel especially vulnerable there.

'These groups see the attack on the media as an easy way to send across the message about their capability. They want to essentially say that ‘if we can attack the people in the media, we can attack anyone.’ Extortion and intimidation then becomes easier,' says Ameet Dhakal, editor-in-chief of ‘Republica’, an English-language national daily published from Kathmandu.

'The rising violence against journalists is directly related to the government’s inability to nab past offenders,' adds Jha.

The Committee to Protect Journalists’ Impunity Index 2009 places Nepal eighth in a list of 14 countries where 'journalists are slain and killers go free.'

Dhakal does not rule out the danger of self-censorship becoming more widespread. However, he believes that the Nepalese media as a whole are 'extremely resilient' and cannot be cowed down by violent elements.

'We stood our ground during the 10-year-long Maoist insurgency when violence against journalists was regular. We also stood our ground when Gyanendra Shah (the ousted monarch) tried to impose curbs on the media. There is no question of us kneeling down before violent elements now,' he says.

Dhakal’s sentiment was echoed by the Editors’ Alliance, a group of 13 editors with English- and Nepali-language national dailies and magazines that came out with front-page articles and special editorials on Mar. 3 condemning the latest killings and violence against journalists.

But proclamations of commitment to fearless journalism are 'easier said than done,' says Tiwari, who reports from eastern Nepal for ‘Republica’ and its sister publication ‘Nagarik’. He used to work for ‘Janakpur Today’ for eight years.

'We have to be on the safe side. We cannot take on the growing number of militant outfits on our own,' he points out.

Apart from Singhaniya’s murder, there are other unresolved incidents against journalists.

A little over a year ago, Uma Singh, a female journalist working for ‘Radio Today’, which is owned by the same group that publishes ‘Janakpur Today’, was hacked to death by up to 20 men. Though the police concluded that Singh’s sister-in-law had hired killers to secure her claim to family property, most others still suspected that the murder was connected to her work.

Journalists in other parts of the country have been coming under attacks as well.

In early December 2009, Rukum district-based female journalist Tika Bista, who is associated with the vernacular national daily ‘Rajdhani’ published from the capital, sustained a near-fatal attack allegedly by Maoist cadres after she published an article — critical of the Maoist party — in a local newspaper of the midwestern district.

Private media flourished in Nepal only after the 1990 ‘People’s Movement’, which brought to an end the absolute monarchy and led to the start of constitutional democracy in the country. Prior to that, Nepal only had a couple of state-owned dailies and a television channel and some tabloids.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement