On the occasion of International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalist, Freedom Forum organized a program with the aim to draw the attention of the concerned stakeholders on the issues of crimes against journalists and media workers on November 9, 2019 in Janakpur. At the program, Province 2 Minister for Internal Affair and Law, Gyanendra Kumar Yadav committed that his province would work for the safety of journalists and media workers. Victim family would be supported and the province will not tolerate any kind of violence against journalists, he said informing that Province was planning for journalists' insurance to provide them security. According to the monitoring data published by FF, number of press freedom violation is in the highest in Province 2 among other provinces. Recently, the communication-related bill was tabled in the Province 2 Parliament, but after the protest from local journalists, it was taken back to revise on the provisions which curtailed press freedom. Minister Yadav informed that for the revision of the bill, he has called concerned stakeholders for the discussion. The program was facilitated by FF representative for Province 2, Rajan Singh. The program was chaired by FF Chairperson Hari Binod Adhikari. Chairperson Adhikari opined that to ensure press freedom and human rights, impunity must not be prevailed. Adhikari said,'' Without press freedom, democracy cannot be saved and therefore, the government should play important role to end impunity against crimes for journalists.'' At the program, FF gathered 30 participants from media, human rights defenders, legal practitioners, political representatives, right to information campaigners and representative from civil society organizations.
'Violence against journalist won't be tolerated', says Minister of Province 2
