CPJ pledges support for press freedom

Nepal is experiencing one of the biggest crisis in press freedom anywhere in the world, Ann Cooper, executive director of international NGO the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told IRIN during her week-long fact-finding mission to the country which began on Monday. The CPJ works to promote press freedom worldwide. “It has been very difficult, especially for local journalists working outside the capital. They are continually harassed by local security force officials,” Cooper told IRIN in the capital, Kathmandu. “We will continue to defend the rights of Nepali journalists. We think it is important that press freedom is maintained,” Cooper added. King Gyanendra imposed restrictions on journalists and the press when he suspended the government and declared a state of emergency on 1 February this year. According to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), thousands of journalists have lost their jobs following the closure of many media outlets as part of the state of emergency. For example, the ban on news broadcasts by FM radio stations has left over 1,000 radio journalists without work. “FM radio stations are very important in rural areas and now they are told not to broadcast any news at all,” explained Cooper. “They had local discussion programmes where people could talk about very local issues like clean water, women and children’s health and the environment. All of that is being taken away from them,” she added. Cooper said she was concerned that the restrictions on press freedom only served to harm the state – a fact that the government seems oblivious to – at a time when Maoist atrocities remain under-reported. “It seems ridiculous that journalists are accused of being Maoist sympathisers just because they report on Maoists,” Cooper noted. Cooper made visits to editors and reporters in both the capital, and in Nepalgunj, a key border city about 500 km west of the capital. Journalists in Nepalgunj are among those who have suffered most from press censorship as well as intimidation, threats and interrogation by security officials and local government administration, the FNJ maintained.