Across Nepal, reporters are being targeted for revolting against the King. Journalist and a Blogger Dinesh Wagle emerged as the voice for the outside world when all means of communication was censored. Shristi Rajbhandari meets the man who fought for democracy.
With the morning ray of sunlight reflecting directly in his apartment, Dinesh Wagle describes it as an oasis of calm. As he sits on a chair nearby his computer, he stretches a little to pull those blue curtains behind him which overshadows him. Flipping through a Kantipur newspaper he slowly grins on seeing his name. Excitement fills his mind every time he recalls his first day as a journalist.
Currently living in New Delhi, one of the busiest, crowded and full of life; Wagle switches on his computer with the homepage of his blog on the screen, shaking his head in disbelief at his own success. As a Bureau Chief, Wagle is responsible for sending reports to Nepal’s largest and the most influential newspaper, Kantipur. For past one year, he has been in Delhi writing about bilateral relations between Nepal and India and also covering news about Nepalese population residing there.
He is the man who fought against all odds in order to be heard when all means of communication was restricted in February 2005 when the former King Gyanendra ousted the government and declared himself as the sole ruler of the Himalayan Kingdom.
The whole nation watched in despair after the announcement. Soon telephone lines were cut, mobile phone services were disconnected and Internet access was blocked. Controversies sparked and people of the country stood in dilemma as days of unrest continued. The following day, streets were deserted. As days passed by situation became more chaotic with roads around the capital clogged with thousands of protestors rallying. Then emerged Wagle, 29, as a sensational voice to the world.
Prior becoming an Editor in chief, Wagle, reported locally and wrote features on Politics and Arts in Kantipur newspaper. For a decade, as a journalist, Wagle says, “I was sheltered by the media house that also challenged the autocracy’’. But this time it was different. Wagle recalls one incident when Military had cordoned his publishing house and were vetting all the work that would be released. After enjoying press freedom for 15 years, journalists were now forbidden to report anything on the royal take-over. Reporters not adhering to the law of the land often ended being locked up, beaten or either arrested. Heavy press censorship resulted in tremendous jobs cuts, which in turn led to a decline in the newspaper circulation. Journalists like Wagle felt the urge to revolt and voice their anguish to free the press. On their mission to restore democracy, hundreds of journalists demonstrated in front of the royal palace.
Nepalese people residing abroad waited impatiently to hear news from their families. As tensions intensified, people marched on the streets of the capital, Kathmandu chanting slogans ‘Restoration of democracy’. Wagle played an active role by organizing street demonstrations and devising ways to circumvent censors. After two months in April 2005, the King finally restored the Parliament and blamed Maoist insurgency as the cause of unrest. For almost a decade, the Himalayan kingdom had been a target of insurgency claiming lives of nearly 13,000 innocent civilians. Even today the people of the country are in crossroads.
Wagle strongly believes blogging acted as a catalyst to restore the country’s democracy, which effectively exerted pressure on the King. Majority of the people were completely unaware about blogsphere due to limited access of Internet and lack of education. But Wagle had read about its network in foreign newspapers and decided to create a blog. Before the coup Wagle thought blogging was only a forum for writers to express their feelings and a passion like any other hobbies. “In the beginning, I didn’t set any goal. It was just because I wanted to blog.”
In ‘United We Blog’ Wagle updated people about ongoing political turmoil. In the beginning the site was created as a common blogsphere to express his thoughts but soon evolved in a revolutionary movement. Wagle’s blogs grabbed worldwide media attention, which helped in relaying information about democratic movement and media situation. Many foreign correspondents visited Wagle’s blog for current updates.
With power shedding in the country, Internet access seemed almost impossible but slowly things began to change. Wagle discovered the way to become the voice to the outside world after realizing Internet was the only tool where freedom of speech could be exercised. He began providing information through clandestine emails, websites and blogs casting them at odds with the rogue government.
Although the state of emergency was lifted, media companies continued to exist under state threat. Wagle had to be careful not to publish reports or editorials that directly questioned the legitimacy of the King’s government. He vividly remembers when military officers approached him. As he stood outside his office waiting for a colleague, he watched a police officer approaching towards him from a distant. Anxiety filled him up after they summoned him to question about his blog, which was one of the main news sources defying the proclamation. He said: “Blogging was a medium of expression that I could use to express myself in a way that I couldn’t in my job”. As soon as they walked away, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Journalists were constantly on the edge during the uprising situation. Once a peaceful landlocked country is now full of danger as journalists continue being targeted by military and Maoist. A place where voices echoed earlier, a silence of terror had replaced it. But Wagle did not fear to voice and hence continued blogging.
Few days later, there was a knock on his door. As he approached to open the door, through a window glass he saw anti-protesters trying to defame him and throwing stones into his garden while police stood still, watching. He said: “That day went by feeling like I was under house arrest myself.” Next morning he received an invitation from the Nepal Army who kept tracks closely on his blogs since March 2005. With full of questions running on his mind, he reached to the army headquarter. He recalls an army spokesman issued him indirect threat urging him to register the web site to them or to the then government of Nepal. Soon there was inspection where his blog narrowly escaped direct government censorship after they could not determine if it was an actual media publication or personal. Actual media publications in Nepal requires to be registered and are subject to government restrictions. Living continuously under constant fear and families under threat, cold chills run down his spine even when recalling four years later. His parents started to worry about his future and Wagle came under immense pressure since he was the only person earning in the family. When he was young, his parents had refused him to become a journalist due to insecurity it possessed. But he revolted against his parents for his passion to work as a journalist.
Wagle says he is not worried about government authorities assaulting or arresting him and that threats only encouraged him to write more against injustice. He says: “The most important is to get the stories about protests and the press out to the public and to the world.”
As journalists began to report electronically, the outside world started to respond. Wagle received an invitation to take part in the Edward R Murrow Fellowship, a State Department program in the United States that offer foreign journalists to come and experience firsthand relationship of the American press to its democracy. He feels proud to be the pioneer blogger of Nepal and being able to voice out during crisis that eventually led him to receive such a prestigious invitation.
Today he is a renowned and an inspirational political columnist in the Nepalese media who revolted against terrorism and the then autocracy rule of the King. Despite all this, future of Nepalese people and its journalists remains bleak. Though there is no way to measure the impact of Nepalese journalists outreach, however, a May 2005 report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists singled out praises for the online reporters like Wagle. Also Curt Hopkins, director of the Committee to Protect Bloggers, credited Wagle with being “a leading voice in a chorus heard around the world” about Nepal’s backslide toward tyranny.
Like many others, Wagle continues to operate at risk when hundreds of Nepalese journalists have been beaten, arrested or detained. “What are they going to do, put me in prison for a few days, a few years?” he asks with a shrug. “It is a matter of principle.”
