MAY 14, 2012 With the deadline of the Constituent Assembly round the corner, various ethnic communities have piled up pressure on the political parties to address their identities in new constitution. Amidst this, some communities have emerged hostile to media.
Lately, Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) threatened of boycotting media which write against federalism.
Submitting a memorandum to the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) in the capital on May 13, 2012, the NEFIN accused the media of taking bribe and writing against ethnicity-based federalism.
It is a very new trend that media has been forced to give more priority to ethnic federalism ignoring others.
Although it is natural that media can be requested to raise the issues of public importance, such pressure to write one-sidedly is the violation of press freedom.
Also, it is the rights of media to make criticisms on any burning issues as federalism, ethnicity-based federalism, constitutional aspects and others.
Therefore, NEFIN's pressure is severe threat on media which have built background for future threat, attack or any on media and journalists in the country.
Freedom Forum condemns the undue intimidation on media by the NEFIN and urges it to respect people's and media rights to make criticism on any issue. Also, NEFIN needs to respect people's rights to freedom of expression.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022