Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 11:

Two organisations have called for the immediate release of a journalist kidnapped by Maoists.

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have condemned the kidnapping of JB Pun Magar, a journalist working for the Himal Khabarpatrika who was abducted by Maoists on March 9 in Kapilavastu. They have also called for his immediate release. RWB said that the CPN-Maoists are also holding two other journalists — Radio Nepal host Dhana Bahadur Rokka Magar, who was kidnapped in western Nepal in August 2002, and Kul Bahadur Malla, the Karnali Sandesh newspaper’s correspondent in western Nepal, who was kidnapped in June 2003. CPN-Maoist supremo Prachanda is on RWB’s worldwide list of predators of press freedom. Magar had recently written an investigative report entitled, “Giving the children a chance to fight”, which detailed the recruitment of child soldiers by Maoists rebels.

He was also responsible for exposing the torching of more than 700 houses in this region by anti-Maoist activists. In response to the torching, the Maoists murdered 10 people whom they accused of being “enemies of the people.” In a separate incident, Kedar Chauhan, editor of the local weekly Rashtriya Samacharpatra and a reporter for the regional daily Darshan, was injured by a bomb, which the Maoists put beneath the body of a man they had shot in Rajghat, in the eastern district of Morang. Chauhan, who had gone to the scene to collect a report, has been hospitalised and is in a stable condition.

The IFJ has also expr-essed concern for Magar’s safety. “The kidnapping of Magar at such a crucial time, when journalists are being harassed, detained and censored, is indicative of the general level of disrespect for journalists’ rights that exists currently in Nepal,” said IFJ President Christopher Warren. “The Maoists have pledged to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists they will respect journalists’ rights. We urge them to honour that pledge by releasing Magar immediately,” he said in the statement.