Conflict Journalism

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday expressed the hope that the new anti-press ordinance promulgated by King Gyanendra in Nepal would not be used to curb media freedom. "We have always believed that a free and independent press is necessary for the people to enjoy their fundamental rights and democratic freedoms,'' the External Affairs Ministry said here. "Curbs on the freedom of expression and the media...

KATHMANDU, Oct 14 - Media rights groups and India have strongly criticized the government for introducing the Press Ordinance to curb the rights of the free press and impose restrictions on it. The spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that it believed that a free and independent press is necessary for the people to enjoy their fundamental rights and democratic...

KATHMANDU, Oct 14 - Senior journalists and former presidents of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) on Friday suggested the FNJ to launch a three-tier protest program simultaneously, against the new media ordinance. Speaking at an interaction organized by the FNJ to discuss future strategy against the ordinance promulgated on Sunday to clamp down on independent media, the senior...

NEW YORK: In a remarkable report published widely Thursday, Tom Lasseter, longtime Knight Ridder correspondent in its Baghdad bureau, reveals what he learned as possibly the first American journalist to embed with an all-Iraqi military operation in the war -- and it isn't pretty. Lasseter writes that "a week spent eating, sleeping and going on patrol with a crack unit of the Iraqi army" (the 4,500...

Reporters Without Borders today roundly condemned a government ordinance issued at King Gyanendra’s behest on 9 October that imposes drastic new curbs on the Nepalese news media. The ordinance bans all news broadcasts, criminalizes all press offences, imposes a ten-fold increase in fines for press law violations, and forbids the news media to cover "subjects that could have negative effects for...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing more than 500,000 journalists in over 110 countries, is alarmed at the King’s decision to dramatically change media laws in Nepal. On October 9, King Gyanendra announced changes to media law that would come into force immediately, limiting media licences, banning the broadcast of news on radio and prohibiting a...

Only two days after Nepal's monarch Gyanendra promulgated a draconian media ordinance Sunday banning news broadcasts on FM stations throughout the country, Nepal's FM stations continue to air news and are vowing to fight the "black ordinance" in the streets and the courts. "We are continuing with our news broadcasts," said Ghamaraj Luintel, spokesperson of Nepal's Save Independent Radio Movement...

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, leading journalists and media executives in over 112 countries, condemns in the strongest possible terms the severe restrictions on press freedom included in the "Ordinance Amending some of the Nepal Act related to Media, 2062," promulgated by King Gyanendra on 9 October. The ordinance will strengthen the state's legislative...

ARTICLE 19 condemns the recent promulgation of an Ordinance by King Gyanendra, which ushers in further draconian measures against an already tightly controlled media. The new ordinance constitutes yet another move towards muzzling independent voices in the country, and granting the Monarchy absolute power, a process initiated in February when the King declared a state of emergency. The Ordinance...

KATHMANDU, Oct. 10: The Ordinance Amending Some Nepal Acts Related to Communication-2062 that has been promulgated by His Majesty the King is oriented towards curtailing monopoly of the media while letting it to abide by democratic norms and values. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the ordinance also prohibits dissemination and broadcast of any information that is...