The editor of the Sanghu weekly received a death threat after reporting on corruption and the role of the general secretary of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities.
UPDATE: Newspaper editor gets hundreds of threats by phone and online (RSF, 15 February 2013)
(Freedom Forum/IFEX) – Freedom Forum is concerned over a death threat received by the editor of the Sanghu weekly, Gopal Budhathoki, over a news report on corruption.
Budhathoki told Freedom Forum, “An unknown person phoned me [on 5 February 2013] on a mobile phone from abroad and threatened me that I would be killed within a week . . . [the caller] asked why I had published a story about the general secretary of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), Ang Kaji Sherpa.”
The weekly had recently reported that corruption is rife in the NEFIN, commenting on the involvement of Ang Kaji Sherpa.
Sanghu is published in the capital city, Kathmandu.
Freedom Forum condemns the threat because it is a violation of press freedom and citizens’ right to information.
The concerned authority needs to identify the individual who issued the death threat and do what it can to prevent a possible attack on Budhathoki, said Freedom Forum.
