December 22, 2008
Kathmandu: Last Sunday, approximately 50 Maoist-affiliated trade unionists and members of the YCL (the Maoist youth wing) stormed the headquarters of Himal Media, a major publishing company, broke windows, vandalized offices and physically attacked staff members.
Kunda Dixit, the Editor/Publisher of Nepali Times, Kiran Nepal, Editor of Himal Khabar Patrika, and the company’s CEO, Ashutosh Tiwari, were among those attacked. Dambar Krishna Shrestha, who tried to protect Mr. Dixit during the melee, was also roughed up. “They asked me who I was,” he told The Hindu, adding: “I said ‘I am a reporter’, then came their fists.”
A press statement issued by the media group states: “They forcibly entered the premises and started beating up staff. They threatened editorial and administrative staff, saying they had written anti-Maoist stories.”
Kiran Nepal told an AFP reporter, “While beating our staff they warned us not to write any anti-Maoist stories."
The Himal media group produces The Nepali Times, a widely read weekly English-language newspaper as well as two news magazines.
The latest issues of two of Himal Media’s publications, including the Nepali Times, carried stories on “extremist behavior” by Maoists including threats to businesses and media organizations and blasted Nepal’s Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal, (who is also leader of the Maoists), for either being unable or unwilling to control his youth wing.
Members of the Himal Media also identified attackers, naming Ramesh Babu Panta and Ramesh K. C. as leading the assailants.
Outcry
The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) immediately blasted the Maoists for the attack: “There is no point continuing in the Government if the Maoists do not mend their ways”, said Ishwar Pokhrel, a member of the UML’s central committee.
On Monday, public outrage increased. The United Nations human rights body in Nepal condemned the incident, describing it as “an attack against freedom of expression.
The United States also condemned the attack and urged authorities to investigate the incident. "There is no justification for the use of violence and intimidation by any party or organization in an attempt to control the media or threaten freedom of the press in Nepal," the U.S. embassy said in a statement.
On the same day, approximately 300 journalists and human rights activists marched through the streets of Kathmandu to protest the Maoist youths’ attack. Six people were injured when riot police used batons to break up the protest rally, said Jagat Nepal, a member of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists.
The Prime Minister’s Reaction
Initially, the Prime Minister seemed unmoved by the incident. On Monday, he flew to Jiri, 160-km from Kathmandu, in the government’s Superpuma — the same aircraft that former King Gyanendra once used — to attend, ironically enough, a meeting of the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA). The PM, accompanied by his wife Sita Poudel and son Prakash, held a meeting with his party cadre even though according to the official directive, the aircraft should not be used for party activities. On being questioned by media in Jiri about the attack on the publishing house, Prachanda blamed it on ‘infiltrators’. It was only later that he gave in to pressure from the media and issued a directive stating that those responsible for the attack should be identified and punished.
But opponents of the Maoist-led government are hardly appeased. And Maoist-sanctioned publications seem to reinforce the idea that the Young Communist League (YCL) should be praised, not admonished nor punished for thuggish behavior.
In a recent article in Revolution in South Asia, journalist Choodamani Oli “Ardash” (Oli’s Maoist nom de guerre) lauded the YCL by saying that it had “brought big changes in the ideological, political, organizational and cultural fields to Nepal. It is the popular organization, which worked with people to combat crimes in the society and liberated them from the repression and exploitation. It has freed the people from gangs of dacoits, thieves and the goons locally and nationally. Therefore, it is the only organization to serve the people in the whole country. It is the heart of the people.”
People who advocate freedom of speech would disagree, just as they would take exception to Rajan Prasad Pokhrel, another Maoist writer who recently glorified his party’s notion of “the politics of transition” in Revolution in South Asia:
“[The politics of transition] requires courage and determination to face all those challenges. There are challenges as well as possibilities for building a new Nepal. Aren’t you ready for it? Now the politics of transition has to take a clear direction for its straightforward destination. When a bourgeois democracy cannot solve the people’s problems and many are discontent with what is going, we should be witty enough to take a road to a higher form of democracy.”
Do the Maoists honestly believe that, by beating up and intimidating journalists (who don’t happen to subscribe to their ideology), they have participated in a political transition of wit? Is violence -- predicated on the notion that journalists exist ONLY for the benefit of Maoist leaders -- the reason that the Nepali people gave the Maoists a resounding victory in the April elections?
What happens to Nepal if the Maoists succeed in silencing any and all journalists who have the temerity, the sheer gall! to speak their minds and express what is in their hearts?
Intolerance for opposing views brought down, at least in part, King Gyanendra’s reign. The Maoists might want to remember that -- and so should the Nepali citizens who walked to the polls last April in search of a better government.
all photos from Nepali Times
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