Photosource: www.setopati.com/ Nabin Babu Gurung
Around 20 journalists were barred from reporting a function organized to celebrate the National Democracy Day in Kathmandu on February 19.
According to media reports, the photojournalists from different media were stopped at the gate of Army Pavilion,Tundikhel.
Photojournalist from www.setopati.com Nabin Babu Gurung said that the security officers asked them to show invitation cards instead of their press cards. "Though we showed them our press identity cards issued by the Department of Information and Broadcasting, they did not let us enter reasoning order from the Home Ministry", informed journalist Gurung.
"Thereafter, we downed our cameras as a sign of protest for an hour, we returned without reporting", he added.
Freedom Forum condemns the obstruction caused to journalists. The journalists have right to report on the public events which is also an issue of public concern. Barring them from reporting despite sporting their identity card is an absolute violation of press freedom. The security persons must abide by press freedom guaranteed by the constitution and respect citizens’ right to information and journalists' right to free reporting.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np