Killing of Nepalese media group head sparks UN alarm

The United Nations human rights office in Nepal today expressed its deep concern over the killing of the head of a media group, the latest in a string of murders of journalists in the Asian nation.

Arun Singhanyia, chairperson of the Janakpur Today Media Group in southern Nepal, was shot dead on 1 March. According to media reports, he was killed as he was traveling home after celebrating the Hindu festival of Holi.

His murder comes just one month after the killing of Jamim Shah, head of satellite TV station Channel Nepal and cable TV company Space Time Network, who was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle on a major thoroughfare in Katmandu, the capital. His driver Mathuraman Malakar was seriously injured in the attack.

Last year, Uma Singh, a reporter at Radio Today FM and a member of the Women’s Human Rights Defenders in the southern district of Dhanusha, was hacked to death in her own home by men armed with “khukhuris,” curved knives traditional to Nepal.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) stressed today that threats and violence against the media can jeopardize the right to freedom of expression, and that journalists must be able to carry out their profession safely and have their human rights fully respected.

The State must ensure the necessary security and intervene when appropriate for all journalists under threat, it added.

“The protection of journalists is of paramount importance in a democratic society and both State and non-State actors must show full respect for press freedom and support a free and independent media,” said Andrew Palmer, Officer-in-Charge of OHCHR-Nepal.

A decade-long civil war, claiming some 13,000 lives, ended in 2006 with the signing of a peace accord between the Government and Maoists. After conducting Constituent Assembly elections in May 2008, Nepal abolished its 240-year-old monarchy and declared itself a republic.