Yet again, Freedom Forum's attention has been drawn towards an anti-press incident occurred in Dharan, an eastern hilly city of the country on June 7, 2011.
Identifying themselves as Bhuvan Yakkha Rai, Chairman of Jatiya Kirat Yakkha Chhumma in Dharan Municipality, an ethnic group and Basant Rai of the same forcefully entered the office of Nepal Samacharpatra in Dharan and vandalized the office, saying the Samacharpatra, a daily newspaper published from the Capital, did not publish the news about the group's activities.
On the same day, they vandalized the offices of local newspapers- Aujar, Fast Times and Blast Times.
It has been common in the country that various ethnic groups have been mushrooming and going on rampage to fulfill their partisan and even individualistic interests. Media and journalist are obviously the victims of such region and caste-based groups.
Freedom Forum urges the State authority to take stringent measures on the culprits and create the atmosphere conducive for the journalists to carry out their works as to protect people's right to information and uphold democratic culture.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022