Janakpur Today, Radio Today
January 11, 2009, in Janakpur , Nepal
About 15 unidentified people attacked Uma Singh, a 27-year-old print and radio reporter, in her home in the southeastern district of Dhanusa in the Janakpur zone in the south of Nepal near the border with India, according to local and international news reports. Singh died of multiple stab wounds to the head and upper body while being transferred from a local hospital to a larger one later that evening.
Some journalists and civil society groups said they believe local Maoists may have been involved in the murder. Among other suggested motives, Nepal 's National Human Rights Commission suspects she was silenced by Maoist workers, who Singh blamed for the abduction and murder of her father and brother in 2006, according to the My Republica news Web site.
Mark Bench with the World Press Freedom Committee visited Janakpur in early February as part of an International Media Support mission looking into Singh's murder. He told CPJ by e-mail that the district police superintendent he interviewed believed her role as a journalist was a likely cause of her death. "She was known for her naming names and for blaming the Maoists for the murder of two family murders," he wrote. "We spoke with 11 female journalists from Janakpur. All spoke of her forthrightness that likely got her killed."
Several local news outlets reported that the murder was personal revenge. Police detained at least three members of her family, including her sister-in-law, on suspicion of ordering the murder over a land dispute, according to local news reports. It is not clear if they have been charged. CPJ bases its claim that Singh was killed for her work on the explanation offered by the World Press Freedom Committee and the reasoning followed by Singh's colleagues.
Singh worked for the Nepali-language daily Janakpur Today and the local FM station Radio Today, according to news reports. She opposed threats to women's rights--including the local tradition of the bride's family paying costly dowries before marriage--and criticized political leaders involved in local unrest stemming from ethnic separatist movements, the reports said.
Militant groups operating in the plains and low hills in the region around Janakpur, known as the Terai, advocate autonomy, and the region has seen outbreaks of violence since 2006, according to published analyses. Despite opening negotiations with some groups, the recently elected government, dominated by the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), has failed to stem the aggression. "If we don't air the news of their choice, they threaten us with killing," Singh told the U.N. Mission in Nepal during an interview in 2008, describing local armed groups.
Medium: Print, Radio
Job: Broadcast Reporter
Beats Covered: Human Rights, Politics
Gender: Female
Local or Foreign: Local
Freelance: No
Type of Death: Murder
Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group
Impunity: Yes
Taken Captive: No
Tortured: No
Threatened: Yes
