Sabin Tuladhar, Photojournalist Working for the Gorkhapatra Corporation including two others journalists, Sunder Shrestha of Samacharpatra national daily and Sunil Pradhan of Rajdhani weekly were mercilessly thrashed near the Chinese embassy in the capital on August 14, Thursday.The security personnel indiscriminately beaten-up three journalists on duty while they were trying to take snaps of the protesting Tibetans in front of the Embassy.
'A group of police personnel ruthlessly kicked and punched me when I opted to defend Shrestha who was being brutally assaulted,' according to Tuladhar.
'I failed to figure out why they targeted us', added Tuladhar.
He also informed that the irate police came down on all three of them aggressively using indecent words
He said that the duty in-charge police inspectors Anupam Rana and Ramesh Thapa, however, intervened in time and controlled their squad, according to The Rising Nepal, a national daily.
They informed the victims that the cops on duty might have mistakenly taken Sundar with a Mongolian face for being a Tibetan Protestor.
The incident has vehemently made press freedom and freedom of expression a butt of joke, involving police personnel to gag press. It would not by any means be tolerable and agreeable act which has manifested the state's involvement in suppressing media workers. To this effect, Freedom Forum strongly condemns the police act in the name of 'suppressing the demand of Tibetan Protestors. At this moment, we also urge the government to show respect and restraint to Tibetan's right to exercise freedom of expression.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022