An incident of press freedom violation on January 22, 2012 drew the attention of the Freedom Forum.
The sister organizations of various Madhes-based political parties burnt the Kantipur daily in various parts of the country including the capital city, Kathmandu reasoning that it published an article that tarnished the image of Madhes- the southern plain- and undervalued the sentiment of the Madhesi people.
Burning the Kantipur daily at Hanumanthan of Kathmandu, Chairman of Tarai Madhes Students' Front affiliated to the Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party, Suresh Kumar Mandal said, "The article by Saurav published in the Kantipur daily was against the dignity of Madhes and Madhesi people and nationality."
In spite of having rights to legal recourse to them, the students turned aggressive and burnt the newspaper which is detrimental to the press freedom.
Also, such incidents are responsible for creating obstruction on people's rights to freedom of expression.
Freedom Forum therefore condemns the act and urges the concerned political parties to teach their cadres about the freedom of expression and press freedom.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022