When journalists threaten like criminals and people start to run away in fear …

UPDATE: The threat materialized on the Friday’s edition of Kantipur. Although the photo of the Twitter user is not used, they have published the name and designation of another Twitter user. They even went ahead to complain the boss of the KETO (means – “little boy” in Nepali).

Original post:


Oh My God… this is unthinkable! And, it is happening in Nepal!

The journalists of one of the leading publication in Nepal, Kantipur were threatening one of the Twitter users – telling:

“We are going to publish your name/photo in story along w/ur death-threat..” (Let’s make a deal otherwise) “.. respond to our question…”.

And the “death threat” reads – “if *** were in front of me he would have been the second one to die.” (Attached below)

Does a death threat starts with an “IF” ?

Now, we need to understand the pretext before jumping into conclusion. Why Prabhat had to be so angry in the first place. He wrote an article in aakarpost saying (translation):

I had always asked them not to publish my Twitter post. They acted as if their 1 million readers won’t buy their newspaper if my Tweet are not published. Then, when I asked the reason for such an action, they ignored me. When I got angry they came back to threaten me.

The issue of people being unhappy of the publication of Twitter post was being debated for some time. It was everybody’s relief that, the week before they even told that – only Twitter posts mentioning @HelloShukrabar will be publish (see the unhonored announcement below).

In sharp contrast to their own announcement, the publication came as a surprise with purely personal and useless collection of twitter post (a copy at the end). The result:

  • @nepaldiary – got fired due to the publication of his post in Kantipur daily. Please refer his comment in this post.
  • @PR4BH4T – was threatened and forced to quit Twitter (link posted above)
  • @webg0ru – got fed up and left Twitter based on the behavior of the journalists
  • @nepaleeidiot – left Twitter feeling awkward
  • @schwafnil – left Twitter, saying “I don’t hold the responsibility of clarifying anyone of my thoughts or motives behind publishing a certain tweet.”

In response to the job loss of @nepaldiary, because of the Twitter post published in Kantipur, the journalists have quoted a proverb sounding like “you got what you deserve.”

 

@nepaleeidiot’s response before leaving Twitter:

After all these events, our journalists are feeling the proudness of winning the debate – teaching the “incompetents” the lesson.

#tweetdebate is also to be blamed

I think, it was a mistake to choose the title of the debate – “Sneaking Journalism”. That title itself gave negative message to the journalist and they started taking the “defensive stance”. The logic couldn’t penetrate the defensive shield and hence the debate turned out to be one-sided.

Background

The Twitter section in Friday edition of Kantipur daily when Bryan Adams performed the concert in Kathmandu. The Twitter post was really nice and to the point. It was nice to read and feel good about it. But, what followed was the disaster. Here is the recent publication that was the cause of all this out roar:

This is the third post I have written about publication of Twitter in a National Daily (hoping this to be the last). Previous posts were:

The disclaimer: This is my personal view and I don’t necessarily endorse all the views of the linked articles. I don’t know anybody involved, in person, and I don’t have anything against the journalist or the Twitter posters.

How polluted is Kathmandu – before and after rain

Everybody knows the Kathmandu air is full of dust and smoke. Ankur Sharma has taken a photo before and after rain and superimposed to give a clear picture on how polluted Kathmandu is.

It is not only the dust and smoke, the sunlight is also rendered dim by cloud on the sky. So, the above photo might be slightly an exaggeration of actual level of pollution.

82-year-old to conquer Mt. Everest; good luck Shailendra K Upadhyaya

It was 2years ago, I wrote about the former Foreign Minister, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay, who announced about his intention to scale Mt. Everest.

Shailendra climbed a 6,160m high Island peak and 6,467m tall Mera Peak successfully in the last few years as a preparation of his ultimate feat to climb Mt. Everest.

Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya, served as the foreign minister and permanent UN representative in the 1970s and 1980s.

The diplomat grandfather says:

I am confident of my success as I believe that the most important part of success of any mission is confidence in oneself, selfless c
ommitment to serve humanity and, of course,will to achieve success.

Upadhyaya is planning to start his ascent from the Everest base camp on April 28, 2011. The expedition is organized by the Senior Citizen Mount Everest Expedition. If Upadhyaya could reach the top, he will dethrone another record holder Nepali senior, Min Bahadur Sherchan who climbed the peak at the age of 76 in 2008. After much struggle, he was finally entered as the oldest climber of Mt. Everest in the Guinness Book of Records in 2010.

Bhuwan KC to marry third time, with Sharmila Dangol

After a few months of formal announcement of the separation with previous wife Sushimita KC, Bhuwan KC is told to be marrying with his new girlfriend, Sharmila Dangol.

Last time, in a program organized by an actress, Rejina Upreti, Bhuwan KC arrived with his new girlfriend. Although he didn’t revealed his girlfriend’s name at that time, he didn’t fail to announce about his new love affair.

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Documentary – Life for a Child

A documentary – Life for a Child
Directed by – Edward Lachman (Academy Award-nominee)
The documentary film follows the journeys of children with type 1 diabetes.

The documentary was produced by the International Diabetes Federation (idf.org) and Eli Lilly and Company to raise awareness of the impact of diabetes and increase support for the IDF Life for a Child Program. lifeforachild.org

Part 1
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