A journalist to the lokaantar.com news media, Sher Bahadur Thapa, was barred from reporting in Surkhet on April 9. Surkhet lies in Karnali Province of Nepal.
Freedom Forum's representative for Karnali Province, Laxmi Bhandari, informed that reporter Thapa reached Town Development Committee to cover a raid conducted by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) at the Committee office. While Thapa was taking pictures and videos of CIAA's raid, Deputy Superintendent of Police Deepak Malla seized his mobile phone and deleted photos and videos.
"I had not taken any photos and videos that would affect their investigation but DSP Malla deleted eight photos and one video and threatened me saying he had encountered many journalists like me", said representative Bhandari quoting reporter Thapa.
Reporter Thapa informed the National Human Rights Commission Province Office and the Federation of Nepali Journalists about the incident.
Freedom Forum condemns the misbehaviour meted out to the on-duty journalist.
Journalists are the watchdog in a society and have the right to report on issues of public importance, but the intimidation of security persons to bar free reporting is a gross violation of press freedom and right to information.FF urges the security official to respect journalists' rights.
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