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.

An incompetent talks Twitter, Kantipur, ethics and the law

The #tweetdebate of last Friday was interesting and it involved the gray area between the legal and ethical boundaries ! The main issue of the debate was that Kantipur, in it’s Friday special (Hello Shukrabar), was publishing unauthorized twitter posts, that were not meant for wider circulation.

I appreciate the journalists of Kantipur who took their time to answer few of the questions. It was in stark contrast to my previous experience of getting a third-grade-citizen-like treatments. Although they never answered the main questions raised in the debate it was a step in the positive direction.

One of the Twitter user sent me this cut of the Kantipur’s publication to explain why he is against them publishing tweets of a general public.

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Taking Twitter for granted – Hello Sukrabar

Are you a Twitter user? The micro-blogging platform in which you can’t type more than 140 characters (yes, it is character, not words).

In the recent time, Twitter has become very popular in the world. Some Nepali have also started using it. Encouraged by its popularity in Nepali users, Kantipur Daily has started publishing a section called "Sataka Twits". In the section one of the reporters copies twitter posts of his/her friends and publishes. When I saw the section last week, I felt a bit uneasy. The section this week is really awkward. One guy, in the published post is telling that he has borrowed his friend’s password to check-out the lady friends there (I thought his name deserves to be removed in the following cutting of the newspaper).

I have a couple of questions, for the publishers.

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