(CEHURDES/IFEX) – At least 10 journalists were injured, one of them seriously, when police intervened in a peaceful demonstration by journalists in Kalaiya, the headquarters of the southern district of Bara, on 9 June 2005. According to reports, Guru Prasad Gautam, secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists’ (FNJ) Bara district chapter, was injured seriously […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – At least 10 journalists were injured, one of them seriously, when police intervened in a peaceful demonstration by journalists in Kalaiya, the headquarters of the southern district of Bara, on 9 June 2005.
According to reports, Guru Prasad Gautam, secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists’ (FNJ) Bara district chapter, was injured seriously when police beat him. He has been admitted to a local hospital.
The president of FNJ’s Bara district chapter, Binod Pyakurel, says police intervened and attacked journalists while they were staging a peaceful demonstration at Bharat Chowk, in Kalaiya, to protest the detention of over 50 journalists in Kathmandu on 8 June.
The authorities released all of the journalists on the morning of 9 June (see IFEX alerts of 9 and 8 June 2005).
CEHURDES condemns the police intervention at the peaceful protest and the beating of a dozen journalists. The Kalaiya incident is yet another example of ongoing state repression of the Nepalese media. CEHURDES calls upon the government to protect the rights of media personnel and to do whatever is necessary to ensure a free and fair environment for Nepalese media personnel to work in. The organisation also demands action against the police officers responsible for attacking journalists in Kalaiya while they were exercising their constitutional rights to peaceful assembly and to protest in a non-violent way.
