(CEHURDES/IFEX) – The following is a 27 November 2005 CEHURDES statement: CEHURDES condemns arrest of journalists, seizure of equipment from Radio Sagarmatha F. M. Kathmandu, Nov. 27 – The Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES), a Kathmandu-based press freedom monitoring group, strongly condemns the government’s act of raiding Radio Sagarmatha F. M., the […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – The following is a 27 November 2005 CEHURDES statement:
CEHURDES condemns arrest of journalists, seizure of equipment from Radio Sagarmatha F. M.
Kathmandu, Nov. 27 – The Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES), a Kathmandu-based press freedom monitoring group, strongly condemns the government’s act of raiding Radio Sagarmatha F. M., the first community radio station in South Asia, seizing its transmission equipment and taking into custody five journalists and technicians who were working at the station Sunday night.
Those arrested include radio journalists Ms. Durga Karki, Dipak Babur Aryal, Dipak Raj Pandey, Punya Bhandari and technician Rajendra Bhandari.
They are reportedly being kept at the District Police Office, Lalitpur.
Radio Sagarmatha, the pioneering public radio station of Nepal, based in Kathmandu valley, was raided at around 21:00 hours Sunday by the police for attempting to carry a BBC Nepali service relay broadcast that included the interview of Maoist leader ‘Prachanda’. The staff of the station has been taken away to an unknown location, equipment has been confiscated, and a letter from the state administration has been delivered to the station to forthwith suspend all broadcasts.
The interview with Prachanda dealt with the recent agreement between the political parties and the Maoist rebels to work towards a resolution of the conflict in the country.
Radio Sagarmatha, however, did not broadcast the interview with Prachanda, obviously under pressure from the authorities.
According to reports, seven other radio stations around the country were also prevented from carrying the BBC Nepali service transmission on Sunday by security forces.
Simultaneously with the action by the government on Radio Sagarmatha, the government also suspended the BBC World Service English relay transmission from the government-owned Radio Nepal.
Only last month, officials from the Ministry of Information and Communications, backed by a convoy of police, raided the office of Kantipur F. M. around midnight (on October 21) and seized its communication equipment, used to uplink its transmission to the eastern region.
The government has yet to return the equipment to Kantipur F. M.
CEHURDES sees the latest incident of seizure of radio equipment of Radio Sagarmatha and arrest of journalists as a blatant violation of press freedom and freedom of expression and an infringement upon people’s right to know, as guaranteed by the country’s constitution.
The action has come without warning and shows the government’s reliance on brute force to run its diktat.
CEHURDES demands the immediate release of all the arrested journalists and the return of the radio equipment to Radio Sagarmatha. We ask the government to immediately stop all activities aimed at controlling the free press in the country and intimidating and harassing journalists.
We renew our demand that the government withdraw the controversial media ordinance that aims at further curtailing press freedom in the country.
