(CEHURDES/IFEX) – The following is a CEHURDES press release: CEHURDES condemns manhandling of photojournalists, government’s letter to a radio station Kathmandu, Nov. 16 – The Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES), a Kathmandu-based press freedom monitoring group, condemns the manhandling of photojournalists who were covering the trial of a former government official on […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – The following is a CEHURDES press release:
CEHURDES condemns manhandling of photojournalists, government’s letter to a radio station
Kathmandu, Nov. 16 – The Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES), a Kathmandu-based press freedom monitoring group, condemns the manhandling of photojournalists who were covering the trial of a former government official on corruption charges. On Tuesday, relatives of Mrs. Sabitri Rajbhandari, former chief of the customs office at the country’s only international airport (Tribhuvan International Airport), manhandled photojournalists Naresh Shrestha and Rajesh Gurung while they were trying to photograph Mrs. Rajbhandari on the court’s premises. She had appeared before the Special Court in Kathmandu on a graft case.
According to Annapurna Post daily, a Nepali language newspaper, a group of over a dozen people, including Mrs. Rajbhandari’s husband and former chief election commissioner (CEC), Keshav Raj Rajbhandari, manhandled the two journalists while they were taking photographs. They seized Shrestha’s camera and manhandled Gurung and seized his identity card. Shrestha’s camera flash was destroyed during the scuffle. Police later returned Shrestha’s camera, but Gurung’s ID card is yet to be returned.
CEHURDES condemns the manhandling of photojournalists Shrestha and Gurung, and asks the government to book the culprits. We also demand that compensation be paid to the journalists for the damage. At a time when the Nepalese press is under threat from the government, the latest incident highlights threats emanating also from civil society. We demand that former CEC Rajbhandari publicly apologise for his misbehaviour towards media professionals.
In a separate incident, the District Administration Office (DAO) of Parsa in southern Nepal has sent a letter to Birgunj FM asking it to air “notices only.” CEHURDES believes that the DAO’s directive is oversteps even the new media ordinance introduced by the government last month. The ordinance bars FM radio stations from broadcasting news-related programmes and asks them to air “information-related programmes” only. The DAO has written a letter to the radio station at a time when the issue is sub-judice.
CEHURDES condemns the government’s latest act of intimidating an independent radio station and demands that the DAO withdraw its directive. The episode is yet another example of unwritten and unseen pressures to which the Nepalese media is subject. We ask that the DAO withdraw its notice and allow the station to air its programmes without any hurdles.
