Itahari, March 31:

The CPN (Maoist)-aligned Joint Trade Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (JTEO) Nepal has urged general public and other sectors to boycott five local media organisations of the eastern region, alleging that the organisations disseminated false news related to the organisation.

Issuing a press statement today, vice-chairman of the JTEO Sunsari Jagdish Sapkota also urged the Ministry of Information and Communications not to provide any government advertisements or other benefits to the five media organisations of the region, namely Blast Times daily published from Dharan, Shree Janmat and Itahari weeklies published from Itahari, Purba Sandesh Daily published from Jhapa and Saptakoshi FM of Itahari.

He claimed that these media falsely disseminated news about decisions made in a meeting held in Itahari yesterday regarding the incident of March 26 where JTEO Sunsari treasurer Ritesh Shrestha had threatened journalists.

According to Chetan Dhamala of Saptakoshi FM, the newspapers and the FM radio had reported that the Maoists have apologised over the March 26 incident. “The journalists didn’t violate any agreement or ethics by disseminating this news,” Dhamala said. “We didn’t do anything wrong by disseminating news about the Maoists apologising over the incident after admitting their mistake.”