Kathmandu, April 24:

“I feel a big change is likely to take place in Nepal,” Kiyoko Ogura, a Japanese journalist who is here to cover the people’s movement, told this scribe.

Like her scores of foreign correspondents covering the movement have made hotels in Darbar Marg and Bouddha their home since April 6. The movement is getting the widest coverage since the royal massacre.

Restricted vehicular movement and snapped mobile phone services have affected their working. Jyoti Malhotra, foreign editor, Star News said never in her journalism career has she faced a situation like this. “Danger lurks everywhere at times like this but even while covering insurgency in India, the government never stopped us from reporting,” he said. “This is a denial of fundamental rights to freedom of expression.” All the media and ambulances were denied curfew pass on Thursday.

“Defying curfew speaks for the strength of the movement,” said Ogura, who has authored Kathmandu Spring: The People’s movement of 1990. She exhoped that the people’s wish would be fulfilled.

CNN has sent two five-member editorial teams — one from Delhi and another from Bangkok — and has set up two studios at Hotel de l’ Annapurna. Besides contemplating how to manage the coverage of tomorrow’s protest, Satinder Bindra, CNN South Asia bureau chief, was discussing US embassy’s advice to the families of non-emergency staff to leave Nepal with his colleagues.

According to Hotel de l’Annapurna, 80 per cent of the rooms have been booked by the international media teams.

Some scribes are also stationed at Hyatt Regency Hotel which lies outside the Ring Road, where no curfew is imposed. Asahi Newspaper of Japan has two journos. Takahashi, photographer with the newspaper, said, “It is most frustrating for the photographers to stay locked in hotel while so much is happening outside,” he said. “Should I move to a hotel inside the Ring Road or stay here to get the good shots?” he enquired for tomorrow.

French 2 TV, The Independent, UK, Aaj Tak, Time, Reuters, Agence France Presse’, Los Angeles Times, BBC, The New York Times, Associated Press, Newsday New York, CTV, VOA, The Guardian, Zee News, and The Hindu have also sent their correspondents. As many as 30 journalists from India are covering the stir.