Nepal Police have arrested two youths from Kathmandu for spreading hoax against Prime Minister K P Oli and other political leaders on April 9, 2020. Kathmandu lies in Bagmati Province of Nepal.
FF's representative Ashok Dahal reported that according to Nepal Police headquarters both of them were involved in doctoring photos of Prime Minister and other political leaders and sharing on social media.
A special team of police deployed from Cyber Bureau, Kathmandu had detained 36-year old Tara Nachiring of Solukhumbu from Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu and Raghu Shrestha aka Ram Kumar of Panauti Kavre.
Tara was found to be doctoring the photo of Prime Minister Oli and other political figures and Raghu was found to be distorting PM Oli's photo.
Furthermore, Police have started an investigation against them under Electronic Transaction Act (2063 BS) for 'publishing and exhibiting content, that is restricted by existing laws, on electronic media, he said quoting Cyber Bureau of Nepal police.
It is not for the first time that authority has been suppressing citizen's right to freedom of expression misusing the ETA. As before, FF again is concerned over the incident as it is sheer misuse of authority to file the case under ETA; rather the case could be filed under civil code. Hence, FF urges the concerned authority to use legitimate ways to charge the accused.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np