The Supreme Court has asked journalist Rajan Kuikel, 45 and Narayan Amrit, 44, to apologize for publishing the news of a meeting between the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court has asked the media editor to disclose the source and apologize for the news.
The Supreme Court had summoned Narayan Amrit, Editor-in-Chief of Nepalsamaya.com and Rajan Kuinkel, Editor of Image Channel, over the news item that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Junga Bahadur Rana had met.
Similarly, Federation of Nepali Journalist (FNJ) Vice Chairperson Ramesh Bista also reached the Supreme Court.
Senior Vice Chairperson of the FNJ, Bista, said that the registrar of the Supreme Court, Narayan Panthi, had called him for a discussion on the news on May 25 and requested to confirm the source and apologize for publishing the news.
But Kuikel and Amrit, have refused to apologize for publishing the news. Roshan Puri, general secretary of the FNJ who participated in the discussion, said that the Supreme Court’s call for discussion on the issue was against the freedom of press and freedom of expression.
Press Council Act, 2048 (with full text)
Mentioned in the statement- ‘There is a legal process and an established method of seeking legal redressal for those who are dissatisfied or file complaints about the published / broadcast news. Ignoring that, it is against the freedom of the press to summon journalists from the Supreme Court, the highest body of the country’s judiciary, for questioning.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has issued a statement saying that there was no meeting between the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice as reported in the media.
