Madhesh Province bureau Chief of Nayapatrika National Daily, Hadis Khuddar, was attacked and taken under control while reporting in Dhanusha on June 6.
Freedom Forum's representative for the province Rajan Singh informed that police attacked Khuddar while reporting on a protest by youths at District Police Office, Dhanusha premises. Local youths were protesting at the office demanding fair investigation on a case of attack upon a local youth with knife.
"While journalist Khuddar was taking a video of the protest, policepersons attacked him and seized his mobile phone. Journalist Khuddar showed his press identity card but they did not stop and took him to the police station", shared representative Singh.
After an hour, Khuddar was released by holding discussion among fellow journalists and police officers. The police chief has also assured of taking action against the policeperson who detained the journalist, said representative Singh.
Freedom Forum condemns the police intimidation upon journalist. Attacking and taking on-duty journalist under control is a sheer violation of press freedom and serious misuse of the security authority by the police person.
FF strongly urges the concerned authorities to respect journalists' rights and cooperate with them.
For more,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np