Rights activists and journalist groups have condemned a series of recent attacks on the private media by the Maoists, and have described the forced closure of Nepal Samacharpatra and Mahanagar daily this week as a serious threat to press freedom in the country.

The pressure on the media has been carried out through the Maoist-affiliated trade unions, but editors say it is a political pressure tactic to tone down criticism of the Maoists under the guise of a labour movement.

"It is a grave threat against the public's right to information when a legitimate struggle for labour rights is used as a tool to stop the publication of newspspers," said the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) in a hard-hitting statement on Wednesday.

A pattern has emerged of staff in private media disrupting journalistic output in recent weeks. The Himalayan Times and Annapurna Post were the first. Then Kantipur and Kathmandu Post suffered labour disturbances last week. Since Tuesday, Nepal Samacharpatra and the rest of Kamana Publications have been forced to close.

Although some staff grievances are genuine, editors and publishers say the Maoists are using their militant unions to interfere with editorial content. It also follows the pattern of how the Maoists have used militant unions to target the manufacturing sector, hotels, restaurants, and private schools in the past year.

"This is a direct challenge to the freedom of press, they have threatened me with physical harm," says Puskar Lal Shrestha, editor and publisher of Nepal Samacharpatra daily, which hasn't come out since Tuesday. Staff at Kantipur also said they were physically threatened last week because they brought out the paper.

The Maoist leadership seems to have concluded that the private press is hostile to them. Although their own papers have a sizeable circulation, they aren't very popular. Media analysts think this could be why they have used the labour leverage to force mainstream papers to suppress negative news and influence public opinion ahead of polls.

But Maoist union leader Sambhu Rimal who lead the movement against Samacharpatra this week says bluntly: "We don't care what you think, we are fighting for our rights."

Labour expert Ramesh Badal cautions against over-reaction, since setting up a trade union is a legal right of workers. He suggests forming a tribunal made up of government, management, and workers to address existing labour demands and future ones as they come up.

Publishers and press freedom groups are convinced the current agitation isn't about labour rights at all but to indirectly influence editorial content. They have called on the government, especially Maoist Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara to be vigilant about protecting press freedom.

Shiva Gaunle is editor of Himal Khabarpatrika and vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists.

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