A New York-based press freedom monitoring group has expressed concerns over what it said possible arrest of two editors of leading dailies published from Kathmandu by the Nepalese authorities.
In a statement issued Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Narayan Wagle, editor of Kantipur, and Prateek Pradhan, editor of The Kathmandu Post dailies believed that police was planning to arrest them.
”This was in retaliation for coverage of protests against King Gyanendra, and for a political cartoon that ran on the front pages of both newspapers on Sunday depicting the constitutional monarchy as a dead animal,” CPJ said quoting media sources.
Addressing a press meet in the capital Kathmandu Thursday, Minister of Information and Communications, Tanka Dhakal, said, “Some media exposed the worst form of irresponsibility by publishing cartoon which has attacked the tower of trust and hurt the people’s sentiment in a demeaning manner.”
Without naming the newspapers concerned, the minister said the government was engaged in a serious homework to take action against them.
Interestingly, Friday’s the state-run Gorkhapatra daily declared that the government was all set to take action against Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post dailies.
On Sunday (Aug 21), both the newspapers carried a cartoon by award-winning cartoonist, Batsyayan (alias Durga Baral) that depicted Nepali Congress president and former premier G P Koirala carrying a dead animal billed as ‘constitutional monarchy.’ A dust bin was in the background.
Two days later, both the dailies published Editor’s note in their front pages clarifying their position. “(Kantipur/The Kathmandu Post) adhere to the principles of multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy. The cartoon published on Sunday’s edition was not intended to violate these principles. We request our readers not to misinterpret our faith in the Constitution of Nepal 1990,” the Editor’s note said.
Despite such clarification, Chief District Officer of Kathmandu, Sushil Ghimire, summoned Wagle, Pradhan and publisher of the dailies, Binod Gyawali, and asked them to furnish their clarification. They, however, refused to record their statements saying that they should be handed out any order by the authorities in writing first.
A few weeks back the Kantipur daily had reported that it had learnt from reliable sources that a conspiracy was being hatched to attack its office premises by some vested interest groups. It did not name them.
In her statement, executive director of CPJ Ann Cooper said she was disturbed by the official harassment and threats of arrest being made against our colleagues at Kantipur Publications. “The threat of jail for editors from the country’s leading media group sends an ominous message to the local press and the international community. We call on the King to stop harassment of the Kantipur group and its journalists, and to roll back all of the restrictive measures that continue to limit the free press in Nepal,” she added.
Cooper had visited Kathmandu early this year to assess the press freedom situation in Nepal after the imposition of the state of emergency.