MEDIA-NEPAL: Space for Free Press Shrinks in War

By Damakant Jayshi Reprint | | Print |

Damakant Jayshi

KATHMANDU, Mar 18 2004 (IPS) - The casualties from among soldiers, civilians and rebels in the Nepal’s Maoist rebellion have drawn a lot of attention, but just as serious is the toll that the conflict is taking on the space available for free media, say journalists and rights campaigners here.

Their concerns have been rising this month, in the wake of warnings by officials to watch what they report about the rebellion and be careful about giving space to Maoist rebels and also given incidents where journalists have been killed or threatened by the rebels.

A list compiled by Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) shows that nearly 300 journalists and columnists have been either detained for questioning or arrested or tortured and in some cases killed by either state security agencies or the Maoists since a national emergency was declared in November 2003.

In a Mar. 15 Cabinet meeting, Home and Information and Communications Minister Kamal Thapa followed up on his Mar. 10 strictures against the press by proposing to "control press", ‘Rajdhani’, a mainstream Nepalese daily, said, quoting anonymous government sources.

Subsequent reports said that the prime minister rejected the move, suggesting instead to "caution" the press.

But that is of little comfort to journalists, given Thapa’s recent accusations that some media give undue importance to the activities of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the formal name of the Maoist rebels seeking to turn this constitutional monarchy into a republican state. "This will only increase the morale of the terrorists and dent the same of the security forces,” he said.

Thapa singled out the FM radio stations operating from outside the capital for "blowing the incidents out of proportion, thus helping the Maoists spread terror".

He reminded the journalists that the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Control and Punishment) Act 2002 was still alive. "This Act has provisions to prohibit the dissemination of news that promote terror and those defying it will be liable to face punishment."

In an interview with IPS, the spokesman at the Ministry of Information and Communications Mukunda Acharya said: ”As of now there is no move to introduce any law to control press".

Journalists say they have cause to be worried when the government says some journalists’ work could be against the government’s interest.

For instance, three days after the minister’s statement, police in the far western town of Nepalgunj arrested seven journalists with the Tharu-language FM radio programme, ‘Hamar Saidan’ on Mar. 20.

They were released after widespread criticism by local and national press and media organisations the following day.

The minister was angry since the press reported the truth about the Maoists’ fierce attack on the district headquarters of Bhojpur in eastern Nepal on Mar. 3, said Gopal Budhathoki, editor of the Nepalese weekly ‘Sanghu’, published from Sanghu in the Kathmandu Valley. The attack left at least 30 government security forces dead.

The government claims that more than 60 Maoists were killed, but some newspapers relied instead on their district correspondents who reported that only 12 bodies of rebels were found, a toll later went up to around 30 a few days later.

Budhathoki, who was picked up and held for 23 days in March 2002, has his own story to tell. At the time, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba announced that the army had detained Budhathoki for publishing reports that "encouraged and raised morale of the Maoists".

Budhathoki said a group of plainclothes army officers interrogated him repeatedly about publishing an article that criticised the army’s commander-in-chief for failing to pay proper tribute to soldiers killed in a battle with Maoist rebels.

He has since joined some 13 journalists who have filed lawsuits against the government claiming compensation for being illegally detained.

But the government, worried about security, is not the only headache of Nepal’s media in today’s charged environment.

On Sep. 3 last year, cadres of Maoist rebels shot dead Ghanashyam Khadka, correspondent of the state-run news national news agency, Rastriya Samachar Samiti, for writing news inimical to Maoists. The rebels owned up the killing later through a statement.

Meantime, the English-language daily ‘The Kathmandu Post’ reported that the government has prepared a stricter version of terrorist control law, TADA 2002, which allows detention of a suspect accused of terrorism for a year without trial. The existing act expires on Apr. 9, 2004.

"It is very unfortunate that the government that the government is even thinking of curbing press freedom," said Prateek Pradhan, editor of the ‘Post’. "Even if the government attempts to do, the press will not obey the government’s directives."

"The problem is not with the press but with the government which is not responsive to public opinion and is not transparent,” he added.

"Minister Thapa’s statement against the independent press is an attempt to terrorise the press into submission," charged Budhathoki, also vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ). "But we will not be cowed down by the government’s bullying."

Soon after the emergency was imposed after the breakdown of the first ceasefire with the Maoists in November 2001, the government had come up with a list of "do’s and don’ts".

On Nov. 28, 2003, the information ministry’s guidelines to the press included refraining from writing news that incited hatred and animosity against the monarchy and harmed national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Among the do’s were "exposing the criminal activities of the Maoist terrorists" and reporting the "brave deeds of the Royal Nepalese Army, the police and the nation’s servants".

Some journalists who have picked up by the authorities have been interrogated about their alleged links with the Maoists or about their sources.

Currently, at least 10 journalists are still under ‘enforced disappearance’ by the security forces, according to the press freedom and monitoring desk of the FNJ. This information is based on the complaints by the family members and colleagues of the detainees.

"We have not been able to find out the whereabouts of these missing journalists despite several reminders and delegations to the government," Pradeep Ghimire of the monitoring desk told IPS.