Kathmandu Press an online news portal website was barred from accessing its own admin panel by it’s web developer Shiran Technologies due to conflict interest in regards to one of the news published on Tuesday. The article published had claimed the alleged involvement of Asgar Ali, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s IT consultant, Kshitiz Rimal, the son of Oli’s chief advisor Bishnu Rimal, and Swaraj Pokhrel, the son of Defence Minister Ishwar Pokhrel in the procuring medical equipment from China. Ali is one of the founders and a partner in F1Soft, which owns eSewa and Shiran Technologies.
According to Kathmandu Press ,” They received number of calls from the people and when they disagree to remove the news the web developer deleted the news and restricted the admin panel from them. They called the tech company and threatened them to do legal action and only then the web developer cpanel returned the access of the website.”
Kathmandu Press has issued a press statement saying it has taken the unauthorized access and content removal as a move to control media and an attack on press freedom.
This is a very unique case scenario for a country like Nepal of unethical access or hacking. It is more complex and complicated as this case also highlights issue
1. Data privacy
2. Trust, ethic and morale
3. Hacking
4. Infrastructure vulnerability
5. Cyber security
6. Freedom of Expression
7. Breach of contract
In an age where we are talking about misinformation and disinformation cases like these prove that core values are more important than any rules and regulations. All the people have to be responsible from their side be it the journalist be it the technology people and the politicians.
