Reporter to https://narayanionline.com/ (an online news portal) Hiralal Acharya was misbehaved by a metropolitan police on December 27 in Chitwan. Chitwan lies in Bagmati Province of Nepal.
Talking to Freedom Forum, reporter Acharya said, "While reporting on a program of a political party in Bharatpur Municipality, I saw metropolitan police chasing the street vendors. I could not resist and took pictures of the scene by my mobile phone. Meanwhile, officers approached me and seized my mobile. Although I showed by identity card and requested him to return my mobile but they shouted at me saying they have order from high levels and I cannot take the photos. As I denied their order they asked me to unlock my mobile and then deleted all the photos themselves.”
He also argued that being a media person he has right to take pictures and report on the issues of public interest and concern.
Freedom Forum condemns the incident as it is grave violation of press freedom. Journalists are free to report on the issues of public concern and make people informed on it. Such harassment to the journalists on duty is intolerable. Hence, FF strongly urges the security authority to respect and ensure free reporting atmosphere for the journalists.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np