Police persons suddenly entered the office of an online news portal—newsabhiyan.com—in Kathmandu in order to ‘enquire about the proof and news content’ published on the portal on August 5, 2017. Kathmandu is the capital city and lies in Province 3 of Nepal.
Immediately after the incident, Editor-In-Chief Chhaya Chandra Bhandari informed Freedom Forum's media monitoring desk saying, "I had been continuously publishing news about the irregularities by anti-graft body CIAA chief on the news portal. In this context, today Police Inspector Hari Bahadur Basnet and Sub-Inspector of Police Kishor Karki in plain clothes suddenly visited the office and asked why I wrote such news. They asked to disclose the proof and source of the news."
After 25 minutes, they left the office, informed Bhandari adding that he expressed concern with senior police official.
Freedom Forum condemns the intimidation the police had on a news portal. If the police had any concern on the content of the news they could complain at the Press Council Nepal, but barging the media house is the violation of press freedom.
Such activities are intended to panic journalists which does not suit in a democratic country. Free media is essential to protect democratic values. So, the security agency must realize that they respect free press.
For More Information
Freedom Forum
Thapathali, Kathmandu
Post Box No: 24292
Phone No. 4102030, 4102022
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np; info@freedomforum.org.np
Website: www.nepalpressfreedom.org; www.freedomforum.org.np