Freedom Forum is sad to hear about the death of a senior journalist Banarasi Burma due to Coronavirus infection at the age of 62 in Kapilbastu on September 7. Kapilbastu lies in Province 5 of Nepal. Journalist Burma was Kapilbastu district correspondent to Nepal Television, a state-owned broadcasting channel. FF’s representative Sudeep Gautam reported that he was also suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney diseases. He was diagnosed positive after his death. It is well known that COVID 19 pandemic has taken thousands of lives around the globe. Media persons could not escape the infection as they are bound to work in frontline disseminating information at this time of crisis. In Nepal too with rapidly increasing infected cases and death toll, the number of journalists diagnosed positive for the virus is also on rise recently. However, this is the first COVID 19 related death among journalists in Nepal. Journalist Burma who worked in media for over 20 years has a wife, two sons, and two daughters in his family. Freedom Forum pays tribute to the departed soul and expresses heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family.
Freedom Forum is a prominent non-governmental organization in Nepal dedicated to institutionalizing democracy, protecting and promoting human rights, press freedom, freedom of expression, right to information, promoting audit accountability, open and accountable budget, public finance reforms, citizen engagement in public finance management and citizen participation in audit. Established in February 2005, the organization emerged in response to the political turmoil following Former King Gyanendra’s coup dated February 1, 2005, which imposed severe restrictions on media and democratic rights. A group of media professionals, legal experts, and academics founded Freedom Forum to safeguard Nepal’s hard-earned democratic freedoms during this repressive period.
