Maoists kidnap a third journalist, seven others assaulted in two weeks

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) strongly condemned abuses inflicted on journalists in Nepal caught between rebels and government, as Maoists kidnapped a third journalist. Some seven journalists have been physically assaulted in the past two weeks and the worldwide press freedom organisation said it was very concerned about the plight of Shakti Kumar Pun abducted by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). It called on the party's leadership not to abduct or harass, and to release Pun, whose kidnapping ran contrary to commitments made by Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who in September 2004 ordered his forces to release all journalist hostages and promised an end to violence against the press. Pun, correspondent for the national daily Rajdhani, was kidnapped with five other people by a group of rebels in Rukum district in the mid-west of the country. It is not clear exactly when they were abducted but local journalists said it took place sometime around 18 November. The Maoists admitted kidnapping them to question them without giving any details about where they were being held. They suspected them of collaborating with the army in the arrest of five Maoist leaders last August. The same Maoist party is holding two other journalists hostage: Dhana Bahadur Rokka Magar, presenter on Radio Nepal, kidnapped in August 2002 by rebels in the west of the country and Kul Bahadur Malla, correspondent for the newspaper Karnali Sandesh in the west, abducted in June 2003. The Maoists murdered kidnapped journalist Dekendra Raj Thapa of Radio Nepal in August 2004 on the grounds that he was a "spy". Reporters Without Borders is also dismayed by repeated violence against the media by members of the military and the police. "It is something of a paradox to see the government giving journalists' associations financial help for reporters who are victims of abuse and then allow security forces to assault journalists with complete impunity," it said in a letter to Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba. "The fight against impunity should be your government's first priority, the organisation's secretary-general added. Three journalists received death threats connected to their reporting in the week of 15 November from a criminal, Susheel KC, who is protected by some local authorities in Nuwakot, north of Kathmandu. They were: Dhruba Kumar Rawal, reporter on the daily Rajdhani and Radio Nepal, Devchandra Bhatta, of the daily Nepal Samacharpatra and Raju Mitra Khanal of the daily Himalaya Times. Pashupati Ghimire, editor of the weekly News Post published in Dharan, in the east of the country, was manhandled by agents of the security forces in a bus between Barahakshetra and Dharan. The journalist was then forced out and had to complete his journey on foot. Producer of the programme "Samay Chakra" on Radio Nepal, Prakash Pokharel, has suffered two recent attacks. Businessman Jaya Bhola Shrestha assaulted him on 7 November in Butwal in the west. Then a few days later soldiers in Gulmi, also in the west, assaulted him without any fault. Soldiers in civilian clothes assaulted and issued death threats against Prakash Mathema, a photographer with press group Kantipur in south-western Kapilvastu on 9 November. They were angry over publication of one of his photos (opposite) on the paper's front page the previous day showing an army patrol in which one soldier was carrying a fellow solider who had been wounded in the leg. Finally, on 4 November, a group of police officers attacked Surya Bahadur Chanda, of government daily Gorakhapatra in Kanchanpur district in the far-west while he was on a reporting assignment, opposite the offices of the Nepal Electricity Authority.