Nepal
Journalists face harassment for reporting on death of television news mogulPosted Feb 26 2010
In the wake of media tycoon Jamim Shah's murder, journalists in Nepal are struggling against threatening e-mail and telephone messages.
All of the messages warned editors to stop reporting on Shah's murder, which police believe to be unrelated to his status as a journalist.
Kailash Sirohiya, chairman and managing editor of Kantipur Publications, received an e-mail on Feb. 12 demanding that he stop covering Shah’s murder. The message stated he had 15 days to comply.
Kathmandu Post editor Akilesh Upadhyay and Kantipur editor Sudheer Sharma reported receiving threatening phone calls on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12.
According to the International Press Institute, the caller told Upadhyay to “shut up, or we will make you shut up.”
Sharma said he was also told to stop coverage of the murder within 15 days.
Shah died on Feb. 7, when two men on a motorcycle shot him in the head and chest while he was riding in his car on a Kathmandu street.
Shah, who introduced the first cable television network in Nepal, was a controversial figure. The Indian government accused Shah of having contact with organized crime leaders such as Dawood Ibrahim, the most wanted man in India.