(FNJ/IFEX) – Police injured at least seven journalists in Baglung on 8 April 2006, when the journalists were covering the news of a peaceful protest organized by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) in the district capital. Hari Narayan Gautam, secretary of the FNJ’s Baglung Chapter, received a serious injury to the head. Police beatings also […]
(FNJ/IFEX) – Police injured at least seven journalists in Baglung on 8 April 2006, when the journalists were covering the news of a peaceful protest organized by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) in the district capital.
Hari Narayan Gautam, secretary of the FNJ’s Baglung Chapter, received a serious injury to the head. Police beatings also injured five other journalists: Himal Sharma, Ram Bahadur GC, Ram Krishna Sharma, Khim Bahadur Karki and Yougendra Milan Satyal.
In another incident in Kathmandu, the government refused to issue curfew passes to some independent media houses, including “Kathmandu Post” and its sister publication, “Kanitpur”. The Ministry of Information and Communication excluded Kantipur Publications from its list of media houses eligible for such passes, which are required for vehicles transporting staff or delivering newspapers.
In another incident, Kanak Mani Dixit, senior journalist and editor of the magazine “Himal South Asia”, was arrested in Kathmandu on 8 April while defying curfew orders imposed by the government to shut down the peaceful political demonstrations planned by the SPA.
Police took into custody over two dozen human rights activists and professionals, including Dixit, as they attempted to quell a protest rally in front of TU Teaching Hospital at Maharajgunj.
Other detained professionals include former speaker of the House of Representatives Damannath Dhungana, former Supreme Court justice Laxman Aryal, and human rights activists Padma Ratna Tuladhar, Charan Prasai, Malla K. Sunder and Dr. Mahesh Maskey.
In a series of separate incidents, various journalists were beaten or mistreated while covering the SPA-organized protests on 8 April: Suresh Regmi, a journalist associated with the Chitwan-based “Synergy FM; Tej Prakash Pandit, chief editor of “Nayayug Bani”; “Kantipur” journalist Santosh Sharma and cameraman Shyam Shrestha; and Tilak Koirala, a Nepal One television journalist, were all handled with undue force by police.
In a press release, the FNJ denounced the police’s manhandling and arrest of journalists in various parts of the country on 8 of April.
The FNJ has asked the government to ensure security forces not repeat such abuses in future. The FNJ has also strongly condemned the government refusal to provide curfew passes to some independent media houses and its disruption of cellular telephone service. It has also demanded the immediate withdrawal of curfew orders, which are a violation of peoples’ constitutional rights to peaceful assembly, movement and association.