Saturday, October 22, 2005
Midnight raid at Nepal's largest pvt radio station
Press Trust of india
Kathmandu, October 22, 2005
Continuing its crackdown on media, Nepalese police has raided the offices of a popular FM radio broadcaster near Kathmandu and seized all its equipment after it defied a government warning to stop transmission.
Armed security men and technicians from the Communication Ministry stormed the offices of 'Kantipur FM' at Jawalakhel in southern Kathmandu at 11.15 pm on Friday night and seized satellite uplinking equipment, including a satellite modem, encoder and digital audio recorder.
They disconnected the station's link with Bhedetar Relay Station, cutting off transmission to several districts in eastern Nepal where Kanipur FM, the country's largest private radio, has over 5 million listeners, Managing Director of the station Binod Raj Gyaweli said.
The Ministry of Information and Communication on Friday directed the broadcaster to adhere to the provisions of a new law promulgated by King Gyanendra that imposes strict control over media ownership and publications and bans the broadcast of news on FM radios.
The Ministry had asked the station to stop transmission to eastern parts of the country.
Kantipur FM, a sister concern of Kantipur Publications, has been airing news and entertainment programme, for the past seven years.
Protesting the government action, Gyaweli said the raid was a direct intervention on press freedom and termed it looting by the government without any prior notice or written order.
"We were operating legally with all the valid documents, there was no reason to conduct a raid at the FM station at midnight. This was a naked attack on people's right to information," Gyaweli charged.
He said the issue would be placed before the public and indicated that the station may move the Supreme Court against the government action.
"We have no other choice than to go to the public, the listeners, for justice," he said.
Meanwhile, the raid drew widespread criticism from media organisations and political parties.
Condemning the incident, Nepali Congress said the raid amounted to state terrorism directed against all its citizens and expressed solidarity to the journalists' movement for restoration of press freedom.
"This has exposed the Government's wish to impose authoritarian rule by totally taking control of free press, which is the basis of multiparty democracy, party spokesman Krishna Sitaula said.
Terming the raid "a lunatic act", Nepali Communist Party-UML spokesman Pradip Nepal said such actions show that the government's legitimacy has ended completely.
Acting president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Shiva Gaunle said "the midnight raid was an act of looting and is deplorable."
"The government has taken this step in the name of implementing the recently introduced draconian Press Ordinance and we will intensify our movement across Nepal against the move," he said.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.