Correspondent at Radio Shringeshwor of Gulmi, Bhuwan Bhusal, was issued an arrest warrant under cybercrime charge on September 26. Gulmi lies in Lumbini Province of Nepal.
Bhusal shared with Freedom Forum that he had reported on a local issue on the radio program and updated related videos on his online media Desh Darshan channel.
"After the news airing and update on online media, police reached my residence with the arrest warrant on September 27 and informed that the arrest warrant was issued on the basis of a complaint filed over news reporting at the police station on April 2021," Bhusal added.
After hearing of the case at Kathmandu District Court today (October 3), the court ordered Nepal police to release Bhusal on a bail amount of Rs. 50000.
Lately, Nepal Police have been arresting journalists for their reporting on the online platform invoking Electronic Transaction Act. Despite availability of legitimate body to address the issues of news content, misuse of ETA by the complainants and subsequent action by security authority against journalists' right to free reporting is really worrying trend in Nepal.
Hence, FF draws the attention of the security authority and human rights institutions to raise voice for the safety and justice of the journalists. Press Council Nepal is the proper and dedicated public body to look after the media content but not the security agency.
FF, therefore, urges the concerned sectors to pay heed to journalists' rights and not to misuse the law.
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Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np