Media groups including the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) have condemned the act of burning copies of newspapers and magazines by a terai-based group in the southern town of Janakpur on Friday.

Talking to Nepalnews, president of FNJ, Bishnu Nisthuri, said newspapers couldn’t be discriminatory in disseminating news. “Any thing that has news value or any good event intended for social development is always covered by the newspapers,” he added.

Nisthuri further said media should not be pressurized to cover agenda of certain vested interest groups.

According to reports, a group of about 15 youths associated with Nepali Madhesi Students’ Front, affiliated to Madheshi People’s Rights Forum, burnt copies of The Kathmandu Post, Kantipur daily, weekly Saptahik and other newspapers and magazines in Janakpur on Friday morning.

As soon as a vehicle carrying newspapers reached the market, youths with their heads covered with red bands, seized the newspapers and burnt them, reports said. The youths even vandalized a shop of a newspaper vendor and smashed the glasses of the vehicle.

Police personnel watched the incident but did not intervene. “Had we charged batons at the vandals, activists would have criticized us of violating human rights,” The Kathmandu Post daily quoted a policeman—who was present at the site– as saying.

The daily quoted chairman of the Front, Keshav Jha, as saying that they burnt down the publications as these papers gave little space to the issues concerning Madhesis and warned to repeat such action in the future.

The Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies (CEHURDES) – a Kathmandu-based freedom of expression monitoring group – has condemned the act of burning copies of newspapers by the so-called Nepali Madhesi Students Front.

“The very act of burning newspapers is a direct attack on people’s right to information and freedom of expression. At a time when the country is moving towards drafting a new constitution allowing all people in the country an equal say in the governance, groups like Front should express their views in a restrained and democratic way,” said CEHURDES in a statement.

The Center has also demanded that local authorities launch a probe and punish the guilty. “Such activities must not be supported or encouraged from any sides,” the statement added.