(CEHURDES/IFEX) – On 23 October 2004, Deputy Senior Police Officer Madan Bista and Police Inspector Arjun Dharel held journalist Poshan K.C. for three hours in Kusum, Banke district, western Nepal. At the time, Poshan K.C., deputy editor of the state-owned Radio Nepal, was returning from celebrating the Nepalese festival of Vijayadashami. He was verbally abused […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – On 23 October 2004, Deputy Senior Police Officer Madan Bista and Police Inspector Arjun Dharel held journalist Poshan K.C. for three hours in Kusum, Banke district, western Nepal. At the time, Poshan K.C., deputy editor of the state-owned Radio Nepal, was returning from celebrating the Nepalese festival of Vijayadashami. He was verbally abused and the officers threatened to physically harm him.
According to Poshan K.C, two police officers also threatened to physically harm other local journalists working in the area, including J. Pande, Jhalak Gaire, Krishna Adhikari and Sama Thapa. They were threatened for publishing information about the killing of innocent civilians in the Sikta area in September.
In a separate incident, on 19 October, Royal Nepal Army officials detained Shankar Roka, deputy editor of the weekly “Bimarsha”, for about six hours in Kathmandu.
CEHURDES condemns the threats against the journalists and their brief detention. The organisation also urges the head of the security forces to instruct his officers to stop all forms of attack against journalists and free expression activists.
