Nepal

CPJ survey finds at least 68 journalists killed in 2009

New York, December 17, 2009—At least 68 journalists worldwide were killed for their work in 2009, the highest yearly tally ever documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the organization said in its year-end analysis. The record toll was driven in large part by the election-related slaughter of more than 30 media workers in the Philippine province of Maguindanao, the deadliest event for the press in CPJ history.

New York, December 9, 2009—Police in Nepal should thoroughly investigate reports that journalist Tika Bista was brutally attacked on Tuesday in reprisal for her work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Journalist Shiva Oli returned to his village in Doti district, in western Nepal, on July 28, 2009, after hiding for three days following harassment for his work, according to the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and other news sources. 

CPJ’s Impunity Index spotlights countries
where journalists are slain and killers go free

New York, March 23, 2009 -- The already murderous conditions for the press in Sri Lanka and Pakistan deteriorated further in the past year, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in its newly updated Impunity Index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. Colombia, historically one of the world’s deadliest nations for the press, improved as the rate of murders declined and prosecutors won important recent convictions.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which wrote to Nepal's Prime Minister on Tuesday protesting unpunished attacks on the media, issued the following statement today in response to news reports that unidentified gunmen shot and injured Gadhimai FM radio program coordinator Gyanendra Raj Misra on Thursday in Birgunj in the restive southern plains region...

Nepal made a historic shift in 2008 from a monarchy to a coalition-ruled democratic republic under the leadership of a former Maoist guerrilla. Journalists’ uncertainty about the ex-rebel leader’s newfound legitimacy was apparent as they struggled to find a way to refer to him in print. Most hedged their bets and used his given name, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, which identified him as a Brahmin at the top of the Hindu caste system, alongside his ethnically neutral but aggressive-sounding nom de guerre, Prachanda, or “fierce one.”

New York, January 12, 2009--The Nepalese government must act immediately to protect female journalists in the wake of the brutal murder of one reporter and death threats made against another in the volatile Terai plains of southern Nepal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.