(RSF/IFEX) – From 16 to 18 April 2004, police arrested at least 300 journalists during demonstrations in the capital, Kathmandu. Around a dozen reporters were also beaten by police officers. “This unprecedented wave of arrests demonstrates the hostility of the government and security forces to independent coverage of pro-democracy demonstrations,” RSF said in a letter […]
(RSF/IFEX) – From 16 to 18 April 2004, police arrested at least 300 journalists during demonstrations in the capital, Kathmandu. Around a dozen reporters were also beaten by police officers.
“This unprecedented wave of arrests demonstrates the hostility of the government and security forces to independent coverage of pro-democracy demonstrations,” RSF said in a letter to Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa. The organisation called on the head of government to order an investigation into the violence and punish the police officers responsible for the incidents.
According to the website Kantipuronline (http://www.kantipuronline.com), on 19 April, the prime minister expressed his concern about the deteriorating situation to the president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ). The FNJ leader has demanded a public apology and the resignation of Information and Interior Minister Kamal Thapa.
On 16 April, riot police arrested 75 journalists while they were covering demonstrations in Kathmandu. At least 50 reporters were arrested in the Ratnapark district, near a demonstration organised by the five main political parties. Protesters were demanding a return to democracy in the country. Around a dozen journalists were clubbed, including Ujir Magar of the daily “Kantipur”. The journalists were held for several hours at the Singhadurbar police station. Two journalists from the Kantipur press group were only released the following morning. More than 20 other journalists were arrested when they protested their colleagues’ detention. They were held for several hours in army barracks of the capital.
The authorities said only “a few journalists were arrested because they prevented police from doing their job,” Agence France-Presse reported.
The FNJ organised a series of demonstrations to condemn the violent incidents, but the government declared the peaceful protest rallies to be illegal. Since 8 April, the government has banned all demonstrations on the grounds that Maoists have been attempting to infiltrate the pro-democracy protests.
On 17 April, hundreds of journalists demonstrated in Kathmandu in protest over the arrests of their colleagues the previous evening. Police moved in to break up the demonstration and around 1,000 people – including some 200 journalists – were arrested, of which at least 50 were staff members of the Kantipur press group. Similar demonstrations were held in around a dozen other cities in Nepal, but RSF was unable to confirm if any journalists were arrested.
On 18 April, several dozen journalists were beaten or arrested by police in Kathmandu’s Bagbazaar district. Damodar Dawadi, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Naya Bikalpa”, was brutally beaten while covering an opposition demonstration. He was taken to hospital unconscious. Swagat Nepal, of the daily “Nepal Samacharpatra”, and Shital Koirala, of the RSS news agency, were both clubbed.
