Nepal: Media Under Siege

KATMANDU, Nepal -- A general strike shut down schools, businesses and transportation in the capital Friday in a protest of new laws restricting the media for criticizing Nepal's king. Nepal's seven major political parties called the strike to oppose new regulations that let authorities shut down newspapers and radio stations and jail journalists. The new laws, imposed Oct. 9, make publishing or...

The Supreme Court of Nepal has asked the government to furnish written replies over the controversial media ordinance issued by King Gyanendra and a subsequent midnight raid conducted on a private FM radio station by the police. VOX POPULI: There have been widespread protests agianst the King's controversial media ordinance. Nine professional organisations filed a writ petition challenging the...

KATHMANDU, Oct 23 - Nine professional organizations, on Sunday, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking nullification of the media ordinance, claiming it is against the Constitution. "The Ordinance contravenes constitutional provisions on Articles 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 22 and 72 . So the ordinance should be nullified," reads the petition. The provisions are related to right to...

Police on Friday raided a major private radio broadcaster, seizing key studio and transmitting components after the station defied a government order to halt newscasts, an official said. Kantipur Radio channel -- which belongs to the country's largest private media group -- was raided by dozens of police on Friday, said Amit Dhakal, news editor of the Kathmandu Post, the English daily published by...

International concern over the Nepal monarch's recent ordinance imposing restriction on the country's Press is rising. The latest to condemn the draconian law have been UNESCO and the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Nepal, which comprises 11 international media organisations. PRO-DEMOCRACY NEPALI PROTESTORS: They will get their elections only in 2007. UNESCO...

Many words have been traced on newspaper pages and debates exchanged at different forums about the recently announced ordinance bringing some amendments in the Communication Act. It is amazing that everyone, including many journalists who don’t belong to any newspaper or who never write, seem to be experts on the issue. In fact even a foreign government has entered into the fray! Unfortunately...

The government's loser attitude got exposed a couple of days before Dashain when it formally made the new Press Ordinance public. The Post and our sister publication Kantipur had announced as long as five months ago that the ordinance had been passed by the Cabinet. The ordinance received such scathing criticism that the apologists started defending that no draft ordinance had been passed. Even...

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Nepal's press restrictions introduced on Oct. 9 will harm the process for holding free elections, said Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization. "The new curbs on media rights contained in this ordinance would indicate that the situation is getting worse,'' Matsuura said yesterday in Paris, according to the UN's Web site...

KATHMANDU, Oct 18 - Eleven international organizations related to media have univocally criticized the newly promulgated media ordinance aimed at imposing curbs on news in Nepal. "We condemn the 'Ordinance Amending some of the Nepal Acts related to Media' promulgated on October 9," stated a joint statement issued by Media Services International on behalf of 'International Press Freedom and Freedom...

KATHMANDU, Oct 17 - Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Monday, announced that FNJ, civil society and professional organizations would jointly move the Supreme Court over what it called "black laws" aimed at curbing independent media. The umbrella forum of professional journalists of Nepal, took the decision to this effect after meeting with representatives from Nepal Bar Association (NBA)...