(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the government to stop a wave of deadly violence that has targeted journalists since Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) rebels ended a cease-fire on 27 August 2003. “We are very worried about the increasing attacks on media workers by both government and rebel forces, which threaten the free flow […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the government to stop a wave of deadly violence that has targeted journalists since Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) rebels ended a cease-fire on 27 August 2003.
“We are very worried about the increasing attacks on media workers by both government and rebel forces, which threaten the free flow of news,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa.
“Journalists are protected in wartime by the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which considers them to be civilians. The arbitrary arrest, killing and kidnapping of journalists are serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Ménard said.
Binod Sajana Chaudhary, a journalist with the weekly “Nepalgunj Express” in the western district of Kailali and formerly with the weekly “Janadesh”, was killed on 27 September (see IFEX alert of 2 October 2003). The daily “Nepal Samacharpatra” quoted rebels as saying plainclothes government agents killed him after he showed them his journalist’s card. He was on his way to the town of Kegaun on a reporting assignment. Local security officials claimed he died in an armed clash, but the rebels said he was unarmed.
Nine journalists are currently detained or missing.
Purna Biram, a poet and journalist with the monthlies “Mulyankan” and “Dishabodh” and the now-closed Maoist weekly “Janadesh”, was arrested in Kathmandu on 29 August by security forces as he was reading poems at a demonstration. Security police deny they arrested him.
Prem Nath Joshi, of the weekly “Jana Dristi” and “Shangrila Voice”, was arrested on 13 September (see alert of 16 September 2003).
Madhav Pokhrel, who writes for the weekly “Hank”, was arrested on 2 October in his Kathmandu bookshop on suspicion of having links with the leftist Najamorcha Nepal party.
Sunbindra Budhamagar, publisher of the monthly “Nishal”, was arrested on 11 October, after the magazine printed an article entitled “Two reigns, two armies”, which displeased the authorities. The magazine’s printing facility was ransacked (see alert of 15 October 2003).
Hari Regmi, a freelance photojournalist, was arrested on 16 October in his photography studio in the Balaju neighbourhood of Kathmandu by three members of the security forces.
Raju Chhetri, managing editor of the weekly “Rastriya Swaviman”, was arrested on 18 October in the village of Pumdibhumdi, near Pokhara. He is considered a Maoist sympathiser and went into hiding in July after the third round of government-rebel negotiations failed. He had been arrested once before, prior to the cease-fire’s collapse.
On 19 October, Baikuntha Bhandari, deputy editor of the monthly “Nepal Today”, was kidnapped from his home in Kathmandu’s Dhumbahari neighbourhood by a group of unidentified people. The same day, Keshab Ghimire, editor of “Blast Daily”, was injured in an attack by thugs in the eastern town of Dharan.
On 24 October, Yogesh Rawal, a 26 year-old reporter for the daily “Rajdhani”, was arrested in Tikapur (western Nepal) by a group of about 20 members of the security forces (see alert of 28 October 2003).
Many other journalists have been arrested and then released after varying periods of detention, during which some were interrogated and beaten by government security forces.
Between late August and October, a dozen journalists have been detained. They include: Bal Kumar Khadka, from the weekly “Khulla Pratispardha”; Nilkantha Tiwari; Ram Hari Chaulagain, from the weekly “Sanghu”; Subhashankar Kandel, editor of the weekly “Jana Dharana” who also works at Image Metro Channel, a new privately-owned television station in Kathmandu; Pushkal Dhakal, a member of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ); Sitaram Baral, deputy editor of the weekly “Janaastha”; Nawaraj Pahadi, former FNJ president in Lamjung district (western Nepal) and a contributor to the national daily “Rajdhani”; Chandra Kantal Paudel, from “Samadhan Daily”; poet and freelance journalist Navin Vinas (also known as Kiran Usa Pun) and Roshan Karki, a correspondent for the daily “Spacetime” in Sindhupalchowk district, northeast of Kathmandu.
After rebels murdered Gyanendra Khadka, a journalist with the government news agency Rastriya Samachar Samiti, on 7 September, RSF appealed to the Nepalese Communist Party to stop its rebels from targeting journalists and obstructing press freedom (see alerts of 12, 11 and 8 September 2003).
Since the cease-fire ended, 42 journalists have been jailed, two have been prosecuted, three have disappeared and five have been tortured by the security forces, according to the FNJ.