Nepal media

    

Nepal’s prolonged political transition has been marked by rampant impunity. The absence of any convictions for war time crimes, the increase in political influences on independent state institutions, and the frequent recourse to violence by political parties and their fraternal organisations has all resulted in a culture where the most ruthless of crimes can go unpunished. The collapse of the rule of law has led to insecurity, and Nepali journalists suffer the most for doing their jobs truthfully and professionally.

In early June this year, Khila Nath Dhakal, a correspondent of the Nepali daily, Nagarik, was thrashed at night by activists of the Youth Association Nepal, a youth wing of the ruling party, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). Dhakal had reported on the attack by YAN activists on a murder accused in the district court premises the previous day. Parshuram Basnet, the head of YAN in the district, did not like the tone and tenor of the story and the fact that he was implicated. Basnet allegedly ordered his two supporters to teach Dhakal a lesson.

Dhakal was lucky to have survived. And the entire journalist fraternity – led by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists – launched a movement asking for Dhakal’s attackers to be punished. Almost three weeks after the assault, while those directly involved have been nabbed, Parshuram Basnet – the mastermind – is still free. Basnet is known to have political protection from a faction of the UML. This case is not a one-off incident, but a part of a pattern.

      

In early 2009, Uma Singh, a young woman journalist in the Tarai town of Janakpur, was murdered. She had written critically about Maoist land grab in neighbouring districts. Sections of the party did not like the reportage. Singh’s case was a bit complicated because of a personal element, where certain family members who bore a personal grudge collaborated with certain political activists to get her killed. Before that, another journalist, Birendra Sah, had exposed the Maoist involvement in illegal activities in another Tarai district. The Maoists had abducted another journalist, Prakash Singh Thakuri, in the far western district of Kanchanpur in the middle of 2007. Thakuri joined the list of missing, never to be seen again.

 In a society whose defining feature is impunity, all Nepalis are increasingly vulnerable. But journalists, due to the nature of their job, need institutional protection and guarantee of the rule of law the most. In its absence, reporters face a tough dilemma – report and run the risk of being attacked or even killed, or exercise self-censorship rather than speak truth to power. The very fact that Nepali journalists have to think on those lines reflects the fragile state of reedom of press in the country.   

(With inputs from Nepal)