(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the 3 June 2003 kidnapping of Bikram Giri, a correspondent for the daily newspaper “Kantipur”, while he was reporting for his newspaper in the western district of Darchula, near the Indian border. When Giri reappeared on 10 June, exhausted, in the main town in Darchula, he confirmed suspicions that he […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the 3 June 2003 kidnapping of Bikram Giri, a correspondent for the daily newspaper “Kantipur”, while he was reporting for his newspaper in the western district of Darchula, near the Indian border. When Giri reappeared on 10 June, exhausted, in the main town in Darchula, he confirmed suspicions that he had been abducted by Maoist rebels.
Giri was the second reporter to have been kidnapped in the past month in Nepal, which is one of the few countries in the world where journalists are regularly kidnapped. The Nepalese press has been the target of both a tough government crackdown and increased Maoist attacks since the start of the year.
RSF said it was very worried about the state of health of Som Sharma, a journalist with the weekly “Aankha”, who has been held by the rebels in eastern Nepal since 13 May. The organisation called on Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara to reiterate the order he gave to the various rebel groups to free captive journalists.
In a recent letter to his family from captivity, Sharma said he was in poor health and was receiving nothing more than potatoes to eat. He also confirmed that he was being held in a house in an isolated village by Maoist rebels, who criticised him for publishing photographs and writing reports for his newspaper about killings they had committed.
Little is known about Kul Bahadur Malla, a correspondent for the newspaper “Kamali Sandesh”, who was abducted in June 2003. The Maoists claimed that he joined their ranks, but this has not been independently confirmed (see IFEX alert of 22 September 2003).
RSF said it was also alarmed about Maoist threats to take reprisals against Upendra Pokhrel, the “Kathmandu Post”‘s correspondent in the eastern district of Panchthar, if he continues to write reports “contrary to their interests.”
