NEPAL: CPJ concerned by reports of editors’ imminent arrest
New York, August 25, 2005The editors of Nepal’s two leading daily newspapers believe police plan to arrest them for their coverage of political unrest in the Himalayan kingdom, whose leadership has imposed widespread curbs on press freedom this year.
Narayan Wagle, editor of Kantipur, and Prateek Pradhan, editor of the Kathmandu Post, were told by government sources that authorities were laying the legal groundwork for their arrest.
This was in retaliation for coverage of protests against King Gyanendra, and for a political cartoon that ran on the front pages of both newspapers on Sunday depicting the constitutional monarchy as a dead animal, media sources told CPJ.
“We have heard from our reliable sources, they are trying to arrest us and prepare charges against us,” Pradhan told The Associated Press. [more]