Rupa Joshi's article on the TV journalists hit the bull's eye ("Tears and roses", #49). Being in the same line of reporting for television networks, I was aghast at the way foreign TV crews were going about their work in early June in Kathmandu. In front of King Mahendra's statue in Durbar Marg, I heard a reporter for STAR TV saying on camera that there was a crowd of 2,000 behind him brandishing swords and knives and had mishandled Indian journalists. In fact, there were hardly 200 people and they were not aggressive at all-that is, until they heard him say that, and that is when the crowd really went wild.

Indian TV journalists were instigating riots by their very presence. The crew I was working with were also time and time again asked menacingly whether they were STAR TV or Zee TV. I had to convince them that they were not. There is obviously a need to regulate such reporting which gives Nepal nothing but bad publicity, and makes a volatile situation even more volatile.

"Amar"
Kathmandu