Actress – Journalist controversies, Who, What, Where and When? (Update)

UPDATE: Sushmita KC ‘Ma Ta Timrai Hoon’ controversy about a TV program producer

Sushmita KC and Prakash Subedi

What had happened – Sushmita KC expressed her dissatisfaction about the report about her movie ‘Ma Ta Timrai Hun’ aired in the 35th episode of a Kantipur TV film program ‘Rajatpat’. In the report aired in the TV show, her debut production movie was a failure and it didn’t do good business. Click here for more details of the controversy.
Where – Facebook
When – August 2016

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Sushma Karki tells journalists what to ask her, follows Shristi Shrestha

Read a detailed report on actress – journalist controversies.

A press meet was organized to tell about the movie releasing this Friday, ‘Sanjog’. In the event, the actress Sushma Karki got angry by the question of a journalist. The question was about Sushma’s previous release movie ‘Chalechha Batas Sustari’. The movie released targeting the Valentine Day of 2016 failed to attract viewers while the other two movies released on the same date – ‘Classic’ and ‘Premgeet’ became hit movies.

In the press meet, Sushma claimed that ‘Chalechha Batas Sustari’ was a hit movie. She also asked the journalists to do proper homework before asking her questions. She told, “I don’t need to tell what I am doing. It is your job to find out what I am doing.”
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Sudarshan Gautam threatened a journalist for writing about his relationship with Rekha Thapa

Disabled actor Sudarshan Gautam was pulled into controversy when he threatened a journalist to kill him over a telephone call. The journalist of filmybazar.com, Shayam Sundar Giri, had recorded the conversation (attached below) in which Sudarshan threatened him not to link Rekha with him. In a report, published in the online magazine, an unnamed source was quoted saying Rekha Thapa to be living together with Sudarshan Gautam in the USA. Based on the way Sudarshan has reacted, the information is untrue.

In the audio, Sudarsan says, “You need to think ten times, before writing about me and Rekha.” He also asked if Rekha has paid the journalist to write about them. Rekha Thapa however hasn’t responded to the issue yet. She is creating a controversy of her own by refusing to participate in any Nepali Award ceremonies.

Based on the analysis of the communication between Rekha and Sudarshan in Facebook, we had concluded that they have broken from a year-long relationship earlier this year. After that, Sudarshan hasn’t returned back to Nepal. When Rekha arrived in the USA and her activities were kept secret, various speculations were made.

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Priyanka Karki wardrobe malfunction and complaint issue solved (with Priyanka’s letter)

Actress Priyanka Karki has written a long letter to the Film Journalist Association (FJAN) in response to the issue raised by a wardrobe malfunction during the success party of ‘Nai Nabhannu La 2’. A journalist had lodged a complaint against the actress of her accusation that the journalist had actually photoshoped to highlight glimpse of underwear. She also told that she was wearing a dark colored underwear, not the one shown in the photo.

In the response letter she admitted that it might be the part of the t-shirt she had tucked. But, the main point is that the issue had caused her problems not the journalists. So, it is unfair to accuse her for what had happened unknowingly.

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Hostel producer Sunil Rawal sued journalist RK Subedi

‘Hostel’  and ‘Saayad‘ producer Sunil Rawal has accused journalist RK Subedi for defaming him. When Rawal refused to pay the money Subedi asked for the promotion of ‘Saayad’, Subedi had published various public notices in his magazine ‘Box Office’ weekly.

Sunil says that he had paid all the dues for the promotion of the movie in the magazine. It seems, Subedi did  a Puja for the movie and claimed the the cost Rs. 25,000. Sunil refused to pay the amount as the spending wasn’t agreed on beforehand. In a Facebook message Sunil said, ‘I have taken RK Subedit to the district court. He defamed me by telling that I didn’t pay him.’

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Prachanda's new house / Everest Bank building / owned or leased ?

The CPN Maoist chairman Prachanad has moved to a new residence in Lazimpat from his earlier home of the last five and half years, in Naya Bazar.

Kantipur published a photo of a red brick house as Prachanda’s new house. But, Prachanda son, Prakash Dahal, has posted a facebook wall post, accusing the newspaper of publishing the building of Everest Bank as their home.

Although various media have told that the new residence is their own, Prakash said in his Facebook profile that the new house is also rented for a limited time. To the question about the rumor that the house was their own, Prakash replied:

The photo below is the actual residence of Prachanda (Photo credit – Nagarik).

In Nepalese context, it is not easy to believe in politicians. These days, it is even harder to believe the newspapers or media.

Talking about irresponsibility of Nepali media, Nepal Samacharpatra and Avenues TV published a "Research Based" news by researching a comedy article – saying that Bollywood actor Amitabh Bhachchan has Nepali roots. But, even after a lot of ridiculation, the media houses haven’t felt the need to clarify their news.

Let’s hope, Nepali newspaper will act a
bit more matured in the future and we we will always be told the truth!

Don't kill the journalist – Truck literature

"Killing" the word in itself is scary! When you feel like writing a message telling not to kill somebody is one of the saddest thing to do.

Yes, it can only happen in Nepal!

The message written on the back of a truck read:

Journalists are the eye openers! They shouldn’t be killed!

Poor Nepali journalists !

I rather prefer love messages better, for a truck literature.

12 Characteristics of a Blogger

We had a #tweetdebate on whether a blogger is a journalist of not. After the debate it was clear that there isn’t any single answer. A blogger can be a journalist if he/she wishes but, the blogger can also be anything else.

That is confusing. Before defining a blogger, let me write down the 12 characteristics of a blogger (I know there are others, please add more in comment):

  1. A blogger is a person. It can be you, me, or a random guy on the street.
  2. A blogger today might not be a blogger tomorrow
  3. A blogger today mightn’t have been a blogger yesterday
  4. Every journalist can be a blogger but every blogger can’t be a journalist
  5. < li>A blogger might seem to know everything

  6. A blogger might seem to know nothing
  7. A blogger might not have a name or an address or a contact number
  8. A blogger might be a team of bloggers (there is no way to know)
  9. A blogger usually have a second job to pay for living (Journalists usually don’t)
  10. A blogger can survive without a single reader (sustainability can be questioned)
  11. A blogger can write a post every day, or every week, or every month, or every year. It might also be one post in the life-time.
  12. Most of the bloggers say they post blog posts for fun (are you serious?).

For these reasons, most of the blogs go unnoticed, un-managed, and too personal for most to even care for.

Now, let’s seek the definitions of a blogger:

  • Dictionary.com says a blogger is – "a person who keeps and updates a blog."
  • A blog is – a website or part of website which, "A frequent, chr
    onological publication of personal thoughts and Web links."

Can such a creature be confined in an organization? Can any organization have an authority over such a random creature as a blogger?

The biggest question is can somebody’s "personal thoughts" be regulated? It probably can’t. That might be the reason Tim O’Reilly’a proposed seven code of conducts don’t mention the word ‘Ethics’ in them!

  1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
  2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
  3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
  4. Ignore the trolls.
  5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
  6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
  7. Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say in person.

Reference:

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.

Be careful, it's Nepal

It is not easy being a Nepali and living in Nepal. A few cases to ponder about:

Hospital (Has … Pita … La)

How many times you have read news? About vandalized hospitals and doctors threatened by the family members of the deceased; just because, their loved one has just died in that hospital?

Hospital is where people die!

If you do a survey, you will be surprised by the number of people who die in hospitals. More people die in hospital than they do in their own home. That is because; hospital is a place where people go for treatment of their diseases. Some of those diseases are curable and others are incurables. There is no guarantee that everybody recovers from the illness. Then, why do these people blame the doctors all the time? It is because the deceased person was young and has not seen the life? Will vandalizing hospitals and thwarting doctors solve our problem?

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