Two journalists were attacked on February 4, the day nationwide general shutdown was called by some political parties, while covering protests in the capital city. Following the dissolution of the Parliament, a faction of Nepal Communist Party has been protesting against the actions of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. With this, a general strike was called on Thursday across the country.
The protestors attacked reporters Deewakar Sah of Mountain Television and Keshav Raj Joshi of https://shilapatra.com/ (a web-based news portal). Both media are run from the capital city.
They attacked journalists, accusing them of being associated with the other faction. The attackers also damaged Joshi's camera. Both the reporters sustained injuries from the attack.
Again, reporter to local Kanchanpur daily Madan Giri was manhandled while covering the protest in Kanchanpur, Sudur Paschim Province. While Giri was reporting on the locals response to the strike, the protestors including former ministers attacked him.
Freedom Forum condemns the incidents. All the incidents stated above depict sheer violation of press freedom and citizen's right to information. Journalists are the prime source of information and have right to work in a fearless atmosphere. However, FF has recorded multiple cases where they are intimidated for doing their job which is really worrying.
Hence, Freedom Forum urges the concerned body to apologize for the attacks on media persons and help create friendly atmosphere for journalists.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np