Freedom Forum welcomes the court's decision to acquit youtuber Santosh Deuja of a cybercrime charge on August 25 in Kathmandu. Deuja is associated with an online news portal www.kapurbot.com and a Youtube channel Kapurbot TV. Presenter Deuja was escaping arrest since the issuance of arrest warrant under cybercrime charge by Kathmandu District Court. He was issued the arrest warrant for broadcasting an interview of local Neelam Sah and her husband on the Youtube channel then. The court has declared Deuja innocent, stating that the interview was taken after consent from both the sides and the journalist had no intention to defame the couple. Freedom Forum had provided legal support to Deuja in this case. FF continues to advocate for journalists' right to free reporting. The order has proved that the journalist and media persons are repeatedly intimidated, harassed, detained and attacked merely for their right to press freedom and freedom of expression. The laws are misused to harass them. Though Deuja had abided by the journalistic code while discharging his duties, he was falsely implicated and charged of committing crime. The order, FF believes, has contributed to reducing impunity relating to crimes against journalists. For more information,| Freedom Forum monitoring@freedomforum,org.np
Freedom Forum is a prominent non-governmental organization in Nepal dedicated to institutionalizing democracy, protecting and promoting human rights, press freedom, freedom of expression, right to information, promoting audit accountability, open and accountable budget, public finance reforms, citizen engagement in public finance management and citizen participation in audit. Established in February 2005, the organization emerged in response to the political turmoil following Former King Gyanendra’s coup dated February 1, 2005, which imposed severe restrictions on media and democratic rights. A group of media professionals, legal experts, and academics founded Freedom Forum to safeguard Nepal’s hard-earned democratic freedoms during this repressive period.
