(CEHURDES/IFEX) – The Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES) – a Kathmandu-based freedom of expression monitoring group – condemns the on-going incidences of harassment, mistreatment and detention of media personnel in the country in the run up to the municipal polls that were held on 8 February 2006. According to information compiled by […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – The Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES) – a Kathmandu-based freedom of expression monitoring group – condemns the on-going incidences of harassment, mistreatment and detention of media personnel in the country in the run up to the municipal polls that were held on 8 February 2006.
According to information compiled by CEHURDES, police took into custody two journalists, Dhiren Chemjong, and Dharma Gautam, from the eastern hilly district of Ilam, on the morning of 8 February as they were covering the municipal polls. No reason was given. Local authorities have not named any charges against them and they were kept in detention until the following evening.
Chemjong is a former central committee member of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) while Gautam is the founder president of the FNJ Ilam district branch.
On 8 February, in the southern district of Chitwan, two junior police officers manhandled Suresh Koirala, a correspondent with “Weekly Janasatta”, while he was heading to a polling center located at Bharatpur municipality ward no. 10 to cover the elections. The police personnel seized his ID and took him into custody for nearly 20 minutes, according to FNJ Chitwan district branch.
Security personnel barred reporters and photojournalists from entering into several polling stations and from taking photographs in Kathmandu and across the country, citing “security reasons.” Representatives of foreign media were, however, allowed to enter the polling centers in most cases.
CEHURDES is concerned with what it believes is a deteriorating situation of press freedom and freedom of expression in the country during the run up to the municipal polls and following them. CEHURDES condemns the arrest, manhandling and mistreatment of journalists across the country.
We demand the immediate release of journalists Chemjong and Gautam without any preconditions. CEHURDES also asks the authorities to apologize for the manhandling of journalist Koirala and ensure that such incidences are not repeated in the future.
CEHURDES also condemns the killing of an opposition activist, Umesh Chandra Thapa, in the mid-western district of Dang on 8 February. A member of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), Thapa died when Royal Nepalese Army personnel opened fire at a group of peaceful demonstrators at the district headquarters of Ghorahi. At least one more opposition activist was injured during the firing.
The Nepalese government said security forces opened fire after a group of demonstrators tried to forcibly enter a polling booth at which point one of them opened fire on security personnel. The opposition parties and eyewitnesses contacted by CEHURDES have dismissed the government’s claim and have said security personnel had intentionally opened fire on a group of opposition activists as they were returning after organizing a peaceful protest.
CEHURDES condemns the killing of Thapa and considers the incident a gross violation of people’s right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. We demand that the government conduct an impartial investigation, arrest the culprits and compensate the families of the victims.
