Nepal's most credible privately-owned media companies, Kantipur Publications, Himalmedia and APCA, have all been targeted by Maoist unions. In the past 15 years the Nepali media has attained a high level of professionalism. It has built a readership and created a market through the credibility of its content. The advertising industry has been able to ride on this growth and is now worth Rs 3 billion a year. Today, the Nepali media is in a pathetic mess, threatened from the right and left. The country's political transformation is being worked out through a new constitution while most professional journalists and media owners are fighting for their survival. The latest coordinated attacks on the media are against the spirit and norms of a free democracy. One political party has shaken the foundation of professional journalism to its core. A free media is not just the right of journalists but also of the people who have a right to impartial information. The threats on the media are taking place when the new constitution is being written, a process in which the role of the media is crucial.