Police pull out from Kantipur FM (news update)

October 21, 2005
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After gheraoing (surrounding) the office of Kantipur FM for nearly two hours, police have pulled out and officials from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) have also returned without taking any action against the popular radio station.

Earlier, police had gheraoed the office of private sector Kantipur FM at Pulchowk, Lalitpur Thursday evening as officials from MoIC pressurized the FM management to stop its eastern regional transmission with immediate effect.

According to latest reports, a three member team visited the station of Kantipur FM, being run by the Kantipur Publication—a leading private sector media group in the country—at around 3:00 p. m. Friday. They first said they were there to inspect the FM transmissions. Later, they said they had orders to cut off the uplinking facility of the FM to its Bhedetar transmitting station in eastern Nepal. The team comprised an administration staff and two technical staff. They said it was `illegal’ to air transmission of the FM to other parts of the country as per the new media ordinance introduced early this month.

According to Prabhat Rimal, station manager of the Kantipur FM, the FM management then demanded written orders from the ministry team. The officials then contacted the MoIC and instead of written orders, police arrived at the FM station at around 5:30 p. m.

Meanwhile, office-bearers of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Nepal Bar Association, general secretary of CPN (UML) Madhav Kumar Nepal and members of civil society have reached the office of Kantipur FM to express their solidarity.

Talking to Kantipur TV, a sister concern of the Kantipur FM, general secretary of Nepal Bar Association Madhav Baskota said it was the ‘naked aggression on media by the government.’ He said the government’s action violated the principle of natural justice at a time when the issue of news broadcast over FM stations was sub-judice.

Acting president of FNJ, Shiva Gaule, said it was yet another example of ‘physical assault by the state against independent media.’ He said the government was making mockery of the constitutional and legal norms in the country instead of honoring them.

On Thursday, Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF)—a Paris-based press freedom watchdog– said Nepal ranked among ten countries at the bottom out of 167 countries surveyed in terms of press freedom.

Nepali authorities are yet to react to the damning RSF report.