The forceful confiscation of equipment at Kantipur FM, a private radio station based in Kathmandu, by government’s security officials Friday night has drawn widespread condemnation, including from political parties, human rights groups and professional organisations.

Dubbing the government action as blatant, the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) in a statement issued today said, “At a time when the so-called media ordinance is being condemned nationwide, the government on October 21, in the name of implementing the same, took away important equipment of Kantipur FM by breaking into its office premises in the middle of the night. This has drawn serious attention of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists.”

“The government’s brazen behavior of confiscating media equipment in a looter’s fashion under the cover of the unconstitutional ordinance enacted against the Supreme Court’s interim order deserves serious condemnation,” the FNJ stated and asked the government to immediately return the confiscated equipment to the FM station. The Federation also called on all media persons to unite against media ordinance.

Likewise, radio journalists and broadcasters who were gathered at the general meeting of the Radio Broadcasting Association of Nepal in Chitwan today carried out protest rally against the government attack on Kantipur FM.

Meanwhile, representatives of the opposition political parties today visited Kantipur FM station and took stock of the incident. Condemning the government act, the leaders said the parties were with the ongoing movement of journalists for press freedom.

Central leaders of major parties including the CPN (UML), Nepali Congress, Nepali Congress (Democratic), People’s Front Nepal, Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) and CPN (Marxist and Leninist) visited the FM station, according to a Kantipur FM report.

Issuing separate statements today, the Reporters Club Nepal, Nepal Bar Association, Human Rights Alliance, HIM Rights, Network for Human Rights, Informal Sector Service Centre today strongly denounced the government act.

Dozens of armed policemen broke into the Kantipur FM station before Friday midnight and confiscated equipment used to uplink the FM’s transmission to Bhedetar station in the eastern region.

According to Kantipur FM management, the station has been using the uplinking facility by following all the regulations enforced by the government.