(CEHURDES/IFEX) – CEHURDES is deeply shocked over the ongoing interference by security forces, which prevents journalists from being able to move freely and provide impartial news reports. Furthermore, the organisation condemns the recent arrests of journalists and rights activists. According to news reports, from 14 to 16 March 2002, the security forces took two journalists […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – CEHURDES is deeply shocked over the ongoing interference by security forces, which prevents journalists from being able to move freely and provide impartial news reports. Furthermore, the organisation condemns the recent arrests of journalists and rights activists.
According to news reports, from 14 to 16 March 2002, the security forces took two journalists and three human rights activists from different parts of the country into custody.
Security personnel arrested Shyam Shrestha, editor of the pro-left monthly “Mulyankan”, rights activist Mahesh Maskey and Pramod Kafley, president of the human rights organization GRINSO. The three were arrested on the afternoon of 16 March at Tribhuvan International Airport. They were on their way to New Delhi to take part in a seminar organised by the Ananda Swarup Verma of Nepal Concern Group, said to be close to the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN, Maoists) and the People’s War Group in India. Previously, on 14 March, half a dozen plainclothes men abducted Ramnath Mainali, a human rights activist and legal advisor for the pro-Maoist weekly “Janadesh”, from his residence at Maitidevi in Kathmandu.
In a separate incident, security forces raided the office of the daily “Naya Yugbodh”, published in the mid-western district of Dang. The officers arrived at around 11:00 p.m. (local time) on 16 March and took Narayan Prasad Sharma, a veteran journalist and the daily’s editor, into custody. Sharma was released after an hour-long interrogation at a local army barrack.
Following the declaration of a “state of emergency” in Nepal on 26 November 2001, more than 100 journalists were arrested in different parts of the country. More than two dozen journalists remain in detention. Among them are journalist Bijaya Raj Acharya, who was reportedly tortured (see IFEX alert of 25 January 2002), and journalist Gopal Budhathoki, whose whereabouts are still unknown (see IFEX alerts of 7 and 6 March 2002). There have been no reports of official charges or cases filed against them.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– calling for an end to gross human rights violations and noting that Nepalese law prohibits army personnel from taking civilians into custody and interrogating them under any pretext
– calling for the unconditional release of the arrested journalists and rights activists
– asking them to publicise the whereabouts of Shrestha, Maskey, Kafle and Mainali and respect their fundamental human rights
– expressing your concern over the ongoing government harassment of the press and the campaign to restrict press freedom and freedom of expression
– asking them to ensure that all arrested journalists who are currently in detention without any official charge receive a fair trial
– calling for a free and fair news reporting environment that is respectful of journalists’ basic freedoms and human rights principles guaranteed by international instruments
– urging them to ensure that journalists and rights activists have freedom of movement
– calling for the respect of basic human rights norms, guaranteed by international human rights instruments, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
– urging them to give journalists and human rights activists free access to affected areas so that they can issue impartial reports
Appeals To
Right Honourable Sher Bahadur Deuba
Prime Minister
Kathmandu, Nepal
c/o Permanent Representative to United Nations
Fax: +977 1 227 286
E-mail: nepal@un.int
Hon. Khum Bahadur Khadka
Minister for Home Affairs
Singh Durbar, Kathmandu, Nepal
Fax: +977 1 225 156
Hon. Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta
Minister of Information and Communications
Singh Durbar, Kathmandu, Nepal
Fax: +977 1 221 729
Pradip Shumsher JB Rana
Inspector General of Police
Police Headquarters
Naxal, Kathmandu, Nepal
Fax: +977 1 415 593
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
