Himalmedia staff get death threats
Three staff of Himalmedia have been getting death threats by phone since Thursday and have been moved to "safe houses", the management of the publishing house said in a statement issued Saturday.
The threats follow a series of physical attacks on the publication's personnel and offices in the past month.
"We are dismayed with the Home Ministry's silence, and urge the police and administration to identify the source of the attacks and threats and begin legal action against the perpetrators," Himalmedia said in the statement.
Early this week, a group of masked attackers seized 5,000 copies of Himal Khabarpatrika, a popular fortnightly magazine published by Himalmedia, from its distribution center at Maitighar, and set fire to them. The attackers also disconnected the office phones, vandalized the office and threatened to kill the distribution staff.
Friday's edition of Nepali Times, an English weekly published by Himalmedia, claimed that the attack was in response to an investigative report in the magazine which "exposed the excesses by militant youth wings of various political parties" including Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL).
"It may be one of the reason. But we are still investigating the matter and can't really say with proof if anybody is behind these attacks," Ashutosh Tiwari, CEO of Himalmedia, told Nepalnews.
The publication house is also having a bitter spat with a small section of its staff intent on opening a parallel union aligned with the Maoists.
Last month, attackers on motorcycles pelted stones at a van bringing Tiwari to work, narrowly missing him and the driver Rajiv Baniya.
"The series of premeditated attacks on Himalmedia and its staff is an assault on press freedom and we strongly condemn it," said Kiran Nepal, executive editor of the magazine.
The targeted attacks against Himalmedia have also been denounced by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists, the Editors' Alliance, Media Society and other journalism watchdog groups as a direct threat to press freedom. nepalnews.com Nov 22 08
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