Exclusive Report
Devastating Earthquake in Nepal
‘The show must go on’ - By Prateebha Tuladhar
While the earth was rumbling in Kathmandu last April, journalists had no other choice but to carry on with their professional activities. No time to think about dangers or family security. Their mission was solely to inform the Nepalese people and the whole world what is happening. ABU News brings you in this edition an exclusive report on how Kantipur Television journalists were working during one of the deadliest earthquakes in the history of Nepal.
O
n April 25, 2015, Mridula Khanal was seated on her anchoring chair in Kantipur
TV studio, at 11:56 am, preparing to present the mid-day news bulletin, when the rattling began.
“First I thought, I was probably just dizzy, then I realized the chair I was seated was shaking, too. I looked up and saw the studio lights sway and make a cracking sound, the monitor fell and the cameraman ran out,” recalls Khanal.
“I still couldn’t gather what it was. There was no command on my ear-piece so I turned around to look at the MCR (master control room) and through the glass, I could see people running. “
The next few seconds, Khanal tried to get up from her chair but she recalls the process being an extremely difficult one. Getting out of the door felt like
an impossible task and by then she realized it was an earthquake, which filled her with fright.
When she got to the MCR, she saw her colleagues huddled under the console. They decided to wait it out together. The minute-long 7.8 magnitude passed, telephone lines went dead.
In another section of the building on the fourth floor, where the daily noon-time newsroom meeting was on, people had been thrown out of their chairs in panic. Some were on the floor, some ducked, and some tried to run down the staircase.
“The first thing that hit me was the frightened faces of my colleagues. We are on the fourth-floor of one of the oldest high-rise buildings in the city. I feared the building might collapse, taking all of us down,” says Dilbhushan Pathak, the chief of Kantipur News.
As the rattling stopped, the occupants of the building managed to run down the stairs.
“Once we were out of the building, realization struck. We were on duty and now we had to deliver. And even though it had been a week since I assumed position as the head of the team, I knew I had a young team and that we needed to get out there, because we always knew Kathmandu is vulnerable,” says Pathak.
As the aftershocks came back within minutes of the first shocker, cameramen climbed up to the fourth floor and got their shooting gear out.
12 ABU News
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44