Journalist kidnapped by Maoist rebels

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) today appealed to the leaders of Nepal's Maoist rebels to immediately release journalist Dhana Bahadur Rokka Magar, a news presenter in the Jaluke region for Radio Nepal's programme Kham (in the Magar language), who was kidnapped by rebels on 1 August. He was travelling by bus on the road from Jaluke to the city of Surket (in western Nepal) on 1 August when rebels stopped the bus and abducted at least six of its passengers, including Rokka Magar and an employee of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, a British NGO. Since then, his colleagues have had no news of him. The Nepalese Journalists' Federation has also appealed to the Maoist rebels for his release. Another provincial correspondent was kidnapped in April. This was Demling Lama, correspondent of Radio Nepal and the Himalaya Times national daily in the Sindhupalchok district (north-east of Katmandu), who was abducted by a group of Maoists on 5 April but subsequently managed to escape his captors. In its report on the situation of press freedom in Nepal, published in March 2002, Reporters Without Borders wrote that: "The situation has changed with the proclamation of a state of emergency and the Maoists, who have executed dozens of ruling Congress Party members since 1996 and who executed a human rights activist more recently, could be tempted to turn against journalists accused of collaborating with the government, especially provincial correspondents."