On World Press Freedom Day, a statement issued by the President of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Bipul Pokhrel, mentioned that 55 cases of violation of press freedom have occurred in Nepal from May 3, 2022, to April 26, 2023.
It mentioned that in those 55 press freedom violations, there were 101 victims including 93 journalists and 8 media organizations. There were 75 incidents of press freedom violations last year.
Bipul Pokharel, in a program organized at Sanchagarm, on World Press Freedom Day, mentioned that even though it has been eight years since the country started practicing federalism, various laws related to the field of journalism in Nepal have not been enacted. He said that the state and political power are still not sensitive in terms of freedom of the press.
Similarly, Roshan Puri, Secretary General of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, said that in the statistics of the Federation’s Communication Monitoring Unit, there have been hundreds of complaints indicating the lack of professional safety of journalists this year as well. Puri also informed that there have been incidents like unauthorized access to online media and removal of news due to weak cyber security.
According to Puri, there have been two cases of arrest of journalists during this one year as documented by the Communication Monitoring Unit of Nepal Journalist Association.
Similarly, Puri mentioned that there were seven cases of obstruction of media occupation, 24 cases of abuse and threats, 11 cases of assault, two cases of sexual violence, one case of displacement of journalists, and 55 cases of threat of security.
