Nepal: Senior police officer threatens Nepalese TV reporter

IFEX

Senior police officer threatens Nepalese TV reporter
Source: Freedom Forum

(Freedom Forum/IFEX) - According to Freedom Forum's information a press freedom violation occurred in the southern plain of Nepal on 10 December 2012.

Upendra Thakur, a reporter with Kantipur Television from Bara district, received a death threat from a senior police official while reporting on a human rights violation.

Thakur told Freedom Forum's Media Monitoring Desk that he was threatened by Superintendent of Police Dansing Bohara. The incident occurred at the Office of the Chief District Office (CDO) while Thakur was following up on news of recent human rights violations in the district.

"Your news has tarnished the police administration. I'm tired of providing justifications since your report [was aired]. Why do you boast of being a journalist? I'm a police officer. You will lose your life very soon," SP Bohara reportedly said to Thakur, according to the journalist.

Thakur explained that he was interviewing the CDO about human rights violations, focusing on recent abductions and a subsequent murder in the district on the occasion of International Human Rights Day.

Earlier, he had reported on the abduction of two individuals, the fact that an unknown gang had subsequently extorted money and the recent discovery of the murdered, decomposed bodies from different parts of the district.

Freedom Forum vehemently condemns the death threat issued against Thakur and strongly demands the higher police authorities take action on the Superintendent of Police, and provide security to the journalist.

It is quite appalling that a member of the security forces, which shoulders responsibility for providing security to the country and its citizens, is himself terrorising an individual. Moreover, the incident occurred before the chief administrative officer in the district.