T. N. Ghimire

Kathmandu: The Federation of Nepalese Journalists Tuesday at its emergency meeting served a seven days ultimatum to the Communist Party of the Maoists to declare officially its policies and commitments towards the press.

The meeting of the FNJ, the umbrella organization of the Nepali Press, expressed its serious concern over the news published in some print media over the killing of Mr. Dekendra Raj Thapa, a radio journalist stationed at Dailekh that the incident took place against the party’s central policy. The meeting also felt that the CPN-Maoists and their leaders were not able to properly address the demands forwarded by the FNJ regarding the killing of the said journalist.

The FNJ demanded that the Maoists should handover the dead body to the family, the family should be given compensation, those involved in the brutal killing should be penalized in a transparent manner.

Talking to The Telegraph Weekly, the FNJ president Mr. Tara Nath Dahal said that the Maoists should immediately make public the status of the abducted three journalists, Dhan Bahadur Magar, Kul Bahdur Malla and Parek Raj Sahi, and also to release them at the earliest. The FNJ also demanded that the Maoists should immediately stop threatening the journalists and not to obstruct the journalists to move freely throughout their areas of operation and urged the Maoists to help the journalist on duty. The FNJ also strongly insisted that the Maoists should rehabilitate those displaced journalists and guarantee the free and fair working environment henceforth.

The FNJ in a press release issued Tuesday, also urged the Maoists to duly apologize and make their opinion public within 31st August 2004.

If the demands are not fulfilled within the allocated timeframe, the FNJ would be forced to act as discussed with the senior journalists, the editors and members of the civil society last week, adds the press release.

In the case that if the Maoists do not address the demands, the FNJ could also go for major actions calling all the media not to provide space for the Maoists related news materials and views, told the General Secretary Mr. Bishnu Nisthuri of the FNJ while talking to this weekly.

The FNJ has also urged the Maoists to immediately take back its decision for the imposition of a blockade of the valley as this has already hit the lay men hard.