Though King Gyanendra, regarded as Nepal's worst suppressor of the media, was ousted from power last year, his role is now being taken over by Maoist guerrillas, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual report on media freedom worldwide.
In its annual press freedom report published Thursday, RSF looked at the media situation last year in 98 countries, tabling the worst violations in repressive countries like North Korea, Cuba and Turkmenistan as well as taking a critical look at democratic countries, which too needed to make progress.
The 15-month absolute rule by King Gyanendra since he seized power through a bloodless coup in February 2005 was the worst period for Nepal's press, with more than a thousand journalists sacked and the media hit by the economic crisis provoked by the royal regime.
The report called the king 'a predator of press freedom' who 'operated strict censorship throughout the country' and 'wiped out almost all the constitutional and legal protection acquired by the independent press since 1990'.
During the pro-democracy protests in February 2006, one year after the King's power grab, more than 50 journalists were arrested while either taking part in or covering demonstrations. Some were held for several months under radical security laws and often in inhuman conditions.
The report especially mentioned a young woman journalist Bhawana Prasain of the monthly Majdur Aawaj who was tortured and threatened with rape by soldiers during detention.
In April 2006, in the last days of the king's rule, nearly 100 press representatives were questioned or arrested, mostly without warrants. RSF said it had recorded at least 117 incidents in which media were attacked or injured by security forces while covering demonstrations, a score of them suffering bullet wounds.
However, the media scene improved after the fall of the royal regime when a multi-party government headed by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala came to power.
Public freedoms were restored one by one as the new government scrapped the king's draconian media act that stopped private radio stations from airing news.
The new government also quashed the anti-terror ordinance frequently used by royalists to jail journalists.
However, despite the fall of the monarch, the media is still being attacked, this time by the Maoists.
Though the guerrillas returned to mainstream politics by rejoining parliament and pledged to lay down their arms, Maoists regularly threatened the press in the regions they control, RSF said.
Although the guerrillas carried out fewer attacks on journalists in 2006 than in previous years, the repression was still there.
In August 2006, 21 people, 12 of them journalists, were held by a group of Maoists in Bara district in the south of the country.
'From April to December 2006, Maoist militants detained, assaulted and abusively summoned or censored at least 15 journalists,' RSF said.
It quoted Nepal's leading media organisation, the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, as saying: 'The Maoists do not always want the press to know about their imperfections. Journalists are always under psychological pressure and under threat when they publish or transmit news which is critical of them.'
At least 245 journalists were arrested in Nepal in 2006 while 180 others were injured attacked or threatened. At least 30 media were censored and four others destroyed as a result of clashes between the army and the Maoists.
In the new year, not covered by the RSF survey, Nepal's media has come under attack from a third predator: demonstrators in the Terai plains.
As clashes erupted in southern Nepal, Birgunj town was especially hit where protesters demanding an autonomous state for Madhesis - people of Indian origin living in the plains - attacked journalists.
As a counter-protest, no papers were published in Birgunj earlier this week for a day.
