Ramesh Rawal, a reporter with the Karobar daily from Kalikot, a remote hilly district in the far-western region of Nepal, has been displaced for writing news on corruption in the district.
Rawal arrived in the capital city, Kathmandu, on July 21, after mounting pressure from the district administration office and office of the district development committee, reasoning he wrote the news about distribution of fake citizenship to the irregularities in the development activities carried out by the district development committee.
District Coordinator at the Karobar daily, D R Acharya, said, quoting Mr Rawal, that he was bound to leave the working area as he could not tolerate the pressure from the Chief District Officer and Local Development Officer about the news he wrote on the administrative irregularities and corruption.
Freedom Forum vehemently condemns the incident and strongly urges the concerned authorities to realize their mistakes and create atmosphere conductive to return the displaced reporter Rawal who is writing boldly about the social and administrative anomalies in the district.
Government authorities' pressure on the journalists, who are bringing out the news of different kinds and informing people, is completely against freedom of expression and journalists' right to report in fair atmosphere.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022