The National Human Rights Commission has requested all relevant parties including the Government of Nepal to protect the safety and freedom of journalists by respecting the freedom of expression and press guaranteed by the constitution and other national/international laws.
The world press freedom day is being celebrated around the globe on 3 May with a main motto of, ‘Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the Environmental Crisis’.
The Commission on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2024 has expressed its best wishes to all citizens including journalists, and activists for freedom of expression.
The press freedom, freedom of expression and human rights are interdependent. The commission is concerned over the increasing number of journalists being victimized this year than last year. They also revealed the fact that there were 64 incidents of violation of press freedom during the last one year as per the Federation of Nepali Journalists.
The media workers who work for the right to information of the public by facing numerous challenges in any crisis are still physically unsafe. Additionally, their freedom of expression has been violated by being arrested simply for publishing news, and subjecting them to intolerant behavior.
The Commission further added that they have also received information regarding the journalists being questioned for their work, about how they face discouragements when they are on their duty for gathering news, about their experiences of facing discriminatory behavior of prosecuting them for cyber crime on the basis of their social media posts.
According to the Commission, the Media Council Bill created for the amendment and unification of the law related to the Media Council has not yet been passed by the Parliament. The journalists play a vital role in guaranteeing the freedom of expression and right to information provided by the constitution.
The press release issued by Dr. Tikaram Pokharel, Joint Secretary and Spokesperson of the National Human Rights Commission states that the mistreatment and discouragement against media workers by any security personnel or other responsible agencies violates rules of law, democracy and human rights, Article 17 (2) (a), Article 19 of the Constitution of Nepal, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of 1948 and even Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966.