(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested after a group of soldiers forced a staff member of the daily “Kalpristha” in Nepalgunj, southern Nepal, to open the paper’s offices, where they conducted a search before arresting him and taking him back to their barracks for interrogation. The troops arrested Bharat Oli as he was distributing copies of […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested after a group of soldiers forced a staff member of the daily “Kalpristha” in Nepalgunj, southern Nepal, to open the paper’s offices, where they conducted a search before arresting him and taking him back to their barracks for interrogation. The troops arrested Bharat Oli as he was distributing copies of “Kalpristha” on the morning of 9 October 2004. A few days earlier, a police officer made a death threat against a journalist with the daily “Rajdhani”, the organisation said.
RSF called on Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to investigate the facts surrounding the search of “Kalpristha”‘s offices and Oli’s detention.
Oli was arrested by eight plainclothes soldiers who took him to their barracks after searching his newspaper’s premises. The soldiers interrogated him about his sources and the paper’s relationship with Maoist rebels.
Worried by his disappearance, Oli’s colleagues reported him missing to the security forces on the afternoon of 9 October. A military spokesman initially denied any knowledge of the incident before admitting that same evening that Oli had been taken in for questioning. He was released after 14 hours in detention. Another army official termed the incident an “ordinary security operation.”
“Kalpristha”‘s editor, Hemanta Karmacharya, said the paper “prioritises independent information and never allows itself to be dictated to either by the Maoists, or the army, or by anyone else (. . .). They can’t be very happy with us,” he said. On several previous occasions, “Kalpristha” has contested information supplied to the paper by the army about clashes with rebels.
In a 2002 investigative report, RSF wrote: “Nepalgunj-based reporters said they were unable to verify most of the information received from the security forces and human rights organisations. ‘Our field access is very limited,’ BBC’s stringer Sharad K. C. said. ‘The threats from the military make us fear for the worst if we go to investigate reports of abuses. We have ended up practicing a large degree of self-censorship.'”
In a separate incident in Jajarkot district, western Nepal, on 7 October, a group of police officers beat and threatened Rajendra Karki, a journalist for the daily “Rajdhani”, as he was returning from a reporting assignment. Police officer Krishna Bahadur Khatri threatened to kill him if he “continued talking.” Karki went to a police station to file a complaint but the officers refused to record it.
It is not known exactly what prompted the threats, but according to local journalists, police in the area are particularly suspicious of journalists and human rights activists.
RSF has urged Prime Minister Deuba to discipline police officers, particularly in the Jajarkot district, so as to end threats to the press.
