(CEHURDES/IFEX) – CEHURDES is concerned over a police action taken against journalists on 15 July 2001, in Dang district. Twenty-four journalists were arrested by police and released the same day while they were travelling to Rolpa to report on Maoist activities. The ultra-left Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) launched a “people’s war” in February 1996. […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – CEHURDES is concerned over a police action taken against journalists on 15 July 2001, in Dang district. Twenty-four journalists were arrested by police and released the same day while they were travelling to Rolpa to report on Maoist activities. The ultra-left Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) launched a “people’s war” in February 1996. More than 1,700 people have been killed since the insurgency between police and Maoist rebels began. On 12 July, in Rolpa, Maoist rebels were surrounded by police after seventy policemen were abducted by the rebels from the Holeri police station in Rolpa.
CEHURDES believes that the police’s actions run counter to press freedom and freedom of expression as well as journalists’ right to report freely. CEHURDES demands that the authorities respect journalists and ensure a free press reporting environment under the provisions of press freedom.
