Journalists duo Bhagwati Pandey and Dinesh Pandey were misbehaved while reporting in Rupandehi district on August 7 . Rupandehi is situated in Province-5 of Nepal.
Bhagwati Pandey is news chief at Lumbini Television and correspondent to www.setopati.com (online news portal) run from the federal capital, Kathmandu. Dinesh Pandey is General Secretary at Lumbini Television and editor at www.samayachakra.com.
According to FF’s representative Sudeep Gautam, journalists saw a police team from an anti-corruption body searching a government vehicle while heading to report news in Kapilvastu. Bhagwati then took pictures of the scene. In the meantime, a Police Inspector Roshan Pandey from the team seized her camera even after she revealed her identity as a journalist. Again, journalist Dinesh Pandey started recording video but the officer grabbed him by neck, manhandled him asking: Who permitted you to record the video? He then seized his mobile.
Later, the journalists got their mobile and camera back with the help of local police. However, journalists have reported the incident to the chief of the authority but no action has been taken yet, informed Gautam.
Freedom Forum condemns the hostility of police persons towards journalists. Reporting on any issues of public concern is the right of journalists and mistreating those merely for doing their duty to inform people is against the constitutionally guaranteed rights of press freedom and right to information. Hence, FF urges the concerned officer to apologize and stop repeat such behavior in the future.
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