freedom1 Forum has been concerned over the arrest of journalists, Sushil Pant and Santosh Bhattarai, from the capital city, Kathmandu, on June 20, 2013. Police arrested guest editor to an online daily www.nepaliheadlines.com, Sushil Pant, and its owner Santosh Bhattarai, reasoning a news story about a women’s college the online published nearly a month back. Editor at the online, Amit Adhikari, said to the freedom1 Forum's Media Monitoring Desk, "Mr Pant and Bhattarai were arrested, saying 'there was something to inquire about a news story'." Sudden arrest of journalists merely because of news writing is against the freedom1 of expression. And, it is not the police person to handle the content issues if anything was wrong. It is the highhandedness of the police to arrest journalists because we have already a separate agency, Press Council Nepal, a regulatory body to monitor the media content. Therefore, freedom1 Forum demands immediate release of journalists, and urges the Press Council Nepal to look into the matter considering the seriousness and sensitivity of the news.
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.
