15 radio journos quit

At a time when Federation of Nepalese Journalists is demanding reinstatement of journalists sacked during the direct rule of the King, 15 journalists of Bharatpur-based Kalika FM station, who had been staging a strike, resigned on Wednesday.

Thy accused the administration of mentally torturing them and threatening to charge them with involvement in Maoist activities.

Issuing a statement, the journalists said they were compelled to resign as the administration, instead of considering their demands, began intimidating them mentally.

The journalists were demanding permanent appointment, provident fund, insurance, arrangement of bonus and grade, extra pay for working overtime and increment in their salaries.

Meanwhile, the Maoist aligned All-Nepal Trade Union Federation-Revolutionary (ANTUF-R) has given an ultimatum to the FM station, demanding that the latter meet the employees’ demands within May 29.

President of the Chitwan chapter of the FNJ Janak Aryal said the federation would intervene in favour of the media personnel.

Director of the Kalika FM, Ramesh Joshi, however, said the resignation tendered by the employees had not been approved yet.

He said the journalists’ demands would be discussed when managing director of the station Bikram Pandey arrives in Chitwan. nepalnews.com pb May 18 06