With three news online portals being blocked from Thursday, the number of total blocked websites has crossed 100 in Nepal, reported FF’s representative Ashok Dahal quoting Acting Chairperson of the council Kishor Shrestha.
The council has claimed that news websites were blocked for spreading hoax and violating media code of ethics.
The Council wrote to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority to restrict access to the online portals from Nepal and the authority asked internet service providers to block the sites accordingly. Officials at the office have claimed that they have been blocking only those sites which are involved in spreading hoax and not registered to the concerned government authorities, informed Dahal.
Government’s action to stop publishing fake news is appreciable, but directly blocking the news sites is condemnable. Instead government could have used different mechanism to stop publishing fake news.
Freedom Forum condemns the incident. Hence, FF urges concerned authority to respect the rights to press freedom and freedom of expression.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np