(CEHURDES/IFEX) – CEHURDES welcomes the release of two journalists and rights activists by the security forces. Furthermore, CEHURDES urges the authorities to respect the universal mandates of press freedom and freedom of expression, as well as people’s fundamental human rights guaranteed by national and international instruments. On the evening of 26 March 2002, the authorities […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – CEHURDES welcomes the release of two journalists and rights activists by the security forces. Furthermore, CEHURDES urges the authorities to respect the universal mandates of press freedom and freedom of expression, as well as people’s fundamental human rights guaranteed by national and international instruments.
On the evening of 26 March 2002, the authorities released Shyam Shrestha, editor of the monthly “Mulyankan”, and human rights activists Mahesh Maskey and Pramod Kafley. The security officials had taken into custody Shrestha and the two rights activists on 16 March at the Tribhuvan International Airport while they were on their way to New Delhi to take part in a conference on Maoist insurgency in Nepal. After his release, Shrestha told the BBC that the authorities released them more than a week after they gave statements denying any links with the Maoist rebels. He said they were going to take part in a conference organised by Indian intellectuals.
Shrestha also said that advocate Ramnath Mainali, a legal advisor to the pro-Maoist weekly “Janadesh”, has fallen sick while in detention and requires immediate medical help. Mainali was arrested on 14 March and is still detained.
The authorities also released Gopal Budhathoki, editor and publisher of the weekly “Saanghu”, after detaining him for twenty-four days. Plainclothes security personnel arrested Budhathoki as he was going to his residence from his office on the night of 3 March.
Following the declaration of a “state of emergency” in Nepal on 26 November 2001, more than 100 journalists were arrested in different parts of the country. More than two dozen journalists remain in detention. Among them is journalist Kumar Rawat, whose whereabouts are still unknown (see IFEX alert of 26 March 2002). There have been no reports of official charges or cases filed against the detained journalists.
