Situation of press freedom in districts is not like what is has been assumed by media personnel and freedom of expression activists based in Kathmandu.

Journalists displaced from various districts said they had to live under the pall of terror and intimidation from both sides- the security forces and Maoists rebels.

Addressing an interaction organized by the Media Services International (MSI) in the capital on Wednesday, Krishna Hari Ghimire, associated with Jana Prabhat weekly published from Sindhulimadi, the headquarters of Sindhuli district, alleged that a Royal Nepalese Army colonel publicly warned him and his colleague, Dwarika Kafle, on December 4 last year that he was waiting for a ‘suitable time’ to take ‘appropriate action’ against the journalist duo.

Ghimire quoted the army colonel as saying that they would be thrown into nearby Gwang River if they acted against the ‘will of the army’. Movement of journalists are closely observed by security personnel after the last year’s royal takeover, he said.

Kafle said children used to tease them why didn’t they have a guard if a security man in civil dress with a gun in hand was not following them. “We were afraid if we would be shot at and declared dead in ‘fake’ encounters,” he said.

Royal Nepalese Army says it has no policy of threatening the journalists and that it is quite aware to honor constitutionally guaranteed rights to press freedom.

Local journalists say they have been facing threats to their life from security forces and Chief District Officers (CDOs) after the royal takeover. “Through frequent telephone calls at midnight, security personnel used to wish me to ‘sleep forever’,” Ghimire said. He said he was unable to sleep for weeks. He said that the Sindhuli CDO has warned local NGOs of deregistration if they provided any advertisement to the local papers that did not support the king’s seizure of power last year. “As a journalist, we are supposed to write what is truth. But we were compelled to write ‘what we were told to write,'” added Ghimire.

Another journalist from remote, mid-western district of Dailekh, Yagya Raj Thapa, said that security men in civil dress closely followed what journalists were talking with the local people. He was offered a job with the state-owned Radio Nepal after the murder of his brother, Dekendra Thapa, by the Maoists. But he was sacked only after five months when he refused to join the pro-government National Federation of Journalists (NFJ).

Harassments from rebels are also a hash reality for most of the reporters working in the districts. Rebels warned dozens of journalist from Dailekh and Sindhuli of ‘physical action’ a few months back if they reported against their atrocities in the area. But the situation looks more relaxed after the CPN (Maoist) entered into a 12-point agreement with the agitating political parties in November last year.

Interestingly, journalists are also working as human rights defenders, as hapless local people approach them to negotiate with the rebels for the release of abductees as well as with the officials and security personnel to ensure release of detainees.

Journalists said they were yet to be paid by some of the big media houses for their stories sent from the districts.

“So-called big media houses do not care how we live or work. We have been wandering for the last two months in Kathmandu seeking help but no one has turned their ears,” said Ghimire and Kafle. Even the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) did not take care of our voices, they said.

In most of the districts in western Nepal, journalists are restricted to leave the district headquarters without the permission from district security officials or CDO. Out of 18 papers being published in Sindhuli, only two – Jana Prabhat and Sindhuli weeklies – have been able to continue their publication regularly after the royal takeover. A few other weeklies supporting king’s action come in the market as and when they get advertisement from the government authorities. Government advertisements to all other papers have been stopped. Out of 32 journalists working in Sindhuli, three have left their profession, four have been turned unemployed and over half-a- dozen journalist have been displaced to Kathmandu or other towns.

As long as the government and rebels remain intolerant towards the ‘fourth estate,’ such stories will continue to pour in.