15 June 2005
KING MUZZLES PRESS FREEDOM
Despite the lifting of a state of emergency in Nepal in April 2005, freedom of expression in the country continues to be severely restricted under the iron-fisted rule of King Gyanendra. Public protests are forbidden in the center of the capital, Kathmandu, and a new media law, now under review, will make permanent a temporary ban on radio news broadcasts.
On 8 June 2005, as many as 100 journalists were arrested in Kathmandu and the rural town of Kavre after the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) launched protests against the proposed media law. Several were injured when baton-wielding police officers charged demonstrators.
All of the protesters were released without charges the next day following pressure from international press freedom groups, including the International Press Institute, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).
In response to a Supreme Court ruling ordering the government to explain its proposed official ban on radio news broadcasts, the Ministry of Information and Communication said the ban would apply only to "specific news programmes." The proposed media law would also increase penalties for violating the law, impose new restrictions on media ownership and prohibit news that causes "hatred" or "disrespect" of the king.
Hundreds of radio journalists have been unable to work as a result of the state of emergency, under which political news broadcasts were banned. However, they continue to defy government attempts to silence critical reporting.
A group called Save the Radio Movement has announced plans for 17 days of protests, including the reading of news bulletins over loudspeakers in the towns of Baneshwor and Patan, according to the Himalayan News Service. Other FM stations are reading aloud sections of the constitution that guarantee a free press.
Visit these links:
- IPI: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14066
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14066
- IFJ Report on Nepal: http://tinyurl.com/8pyqm
- WAN Resolution Nepal: http://www.wan-press.org/article7311.html
- CPJ Report "A Country Silenced": http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2005/nepal_05/nepal_05_main.html
- Index on Censorship: http://tinyurl.com/8nwhk
- Nepal's Monarchy Under Threat: http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1415132,00.html
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