Birendra Shah

New York, June 14, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed today the conviction of two suspects in the 2009 murder of journalist Uma Singh, but called for a continued investigation into the remaining suspects in the attack. 

New York, June 6, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the life imprisonment of the two men who murdered journalist Birendra Shah. CPJ also calls for the arrest of three local Maoists accused of masterminding the 2007 killing.

Top Developments
• Government fails to investigate press freedom abuses.
• Reporter slain after covering Maoist land seizures.

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.”

CPJ's Impunity Index ranks countries where killers of journalists go free

New York, April 30, 2008 -- Democracies from Colombia to India and Russia to the Philippines are among the worst countries in the world at prosecuting journalists' killers according to the Impunity Index, a list of countries compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists where governments have consistently failed to solve journalists' murders.

New York, November 5, 2007—Maoist authorities issued a statement today confirming the murder of Nepalese journalist Birendra Shah on October 4, the day he was kidnapped, by members of their party, according to Guna Raj Luitel, news editor of Kantipur Daily in Kathmandu.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) had distanced itself from the murder, which it called an individual and anarchic act by a district committee member, Lal Bahadur Chaudhary, and two associates. The three had described their involvement in the murder to the party by telephone, according to Luitel. They had previously been expelled from the party and would now face disciplinary action, Luitel said.

New York , October 12, 2007 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is increasingly concerned about the fate of missing journalist Birendra Shah as political pressure mounts in Nepal to find him. CPJ called for the release of Shah, who reports for Nepal FM, Dristi Weekly, and Avenues TV, on Wednesday. He was abducted by local Maoist cadres in Bara district in central Nepal, according to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists.

New York, October 10, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the abduction of Nepalese journalist Birendra Shah, Bara district correspondent for Nepal FM, Dristi Weekly, and Avenues TV.

Shah has been missing since Friday. Ram Dev Das, editor of the magazine Terai Khabar Patrika, told the Federation of Nepalese Journalists that he was with Shah when they were kidnapped by an unidentified group in Kalaiya, in the central Nepalese district of Bara. Das said he was beaten by the kidnappers before being released, according to the federation.