Freedom Forum is concerned over an attack on a leading online news portal www.onlinekhabar.com for a blog published on the online. The blog entitled- Viral candidate and insult of National Flag- was published on May 6.
The blog bearing byline of Sambhu Suskera reads- The way one of the candidates of Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City wears Nepal's national flag on his back during the election campaign is the insult of national flag. The wearing style is also against procedure of the use of national flag.
Following its publication, supporters of the candidate Balen Shah emerged against the news portal for publishing the blog. They argued that the way Balen Shah wore the flag is in no way insult of the flag.
This is sheer intolerance of criticism. Freedom Forum takes it as an organized attack on media for its published contents. There are alternative ways to report discontent over published content of the media. Free speech can not be restricted in democracy. FF urges candidate Shah and his supporters need to respect free press and free expression- the rights guaranteed by the constitution.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np