Journalists R N Biswas, Navin Gupta and Bidhyanand Ram were briefly taken under control at a rural municipality office in Saptari on August 6. Saptari lies in Madhesh Province of Nepal.
RN Biswas is a Saptari based correspondent to Kantipur Television, Navin Gupta is associated with Rajbiraj daily and Bidhyanand Ram is a local reporter to Nepal Samacharpatra daily.
Freedom Forum’s representative for Madhesh Province Rajan Singh said that the journalists were taken under control while taking video of Rajgadh rural municipality office premises.
“They reached the municipality office to report on a program where locals and people’s representatives were about to submit a memorandum to the municipality chairperson OM Prakash Mandal for holding village assembly illegally. As the program was delayed, reporters started taking videos of the premises. Meanwhile, Chairperson Mandal came and asked the reporters,"Why did you enter the office rooms, without my permission?" and took them under control in the office room for at least ten minutes. He also seized camera and boom.”
Ten minutes later, fellow journalists came to the office and opened the door where reporters were locked. "We are unable to do our job fearlessly after the incident", shared reporter Biswas.
However, the chairperson returned reporter’s belongings back after ten minutes.
Freedom Forum is concerned over the incident as it is sheer violation of press freedom. The local authority is urged to be aware of journalists’ right to free reporting and cooperate them instead to ensure fair reporting atmosphere for journalists.
For more,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np