Phidim, August 19

The press fraternity in Panchthar has been a terrorised lot due to a Facebook status posted by a regional ethnic organisation here.

After Federal Limbuwan Party Nepal availed itself of the social networking site targeting journalists holding different views, local journalists have taken exception to their act.

Recently, the FLPN posted a status in the Facebook and tagged it to all the journalists, urging them to ‘cooperate in the collection of names of pressmen who did not support the agenda of identity, federalism, secularism and the Limbuwan campaign.

Subhansingh Kerung, a Limbuwan cadre wrote, “As journalists don’t have any right to spit on Limbuwan soil, they need to wake up to this reality if they want to continue with their profession in the future.”

The Federation of Nepali Journalists central representative Lekhnath Khatiwada condemned the facebook status, saying, “The post seems to be a natural response from those who have been irked by the fact that their campaign hasn’t got much coverage in the papers, but whatever it is, it’s tried to deter journalists from doing their job freely.”

Naya Patrika Panchthar correspondent Saroj Sharma flayed the status, but FLPN district secretariat member Sajiv Yongya tried to defend it saying the status trickled into the social networking site due to the ‘low intelligence among party cadres’.