Kathmandu, January 29:

The Federation of Nepalese Journalists is going to organise a rally on February 1 to mark the

day as a “Black Day” saying the suppression on free press began since that day last year.

“The day means a lot to the journalists. Right after the royal proclamation, our freedom, guaranteed by the Constitution, was confined. This day will be remembered in the

history as a ‘black day’,” said Bishnu Nisthuri, chairman of the FNJ, at an interaction today.

He said the rally with massive participation from other professionals as well as readers and listeners will be held and a national conference will also be organised on the same day.

“The conference will unveil all episodes of censorship, torture, imprisonment and abuse of journalists,” he said.

Harihar Birahi, former president of the FNJ, said protest should be of a magnitude that the state would never again try to disrupt people’s right to information. “Even today a FM station in Palpa was threatened. The yearlong series of suppression on media is on. Only a forceful protest will make the state realise our existence in the society,” he said.

Gopal Thapaliya, the chairman of SAFMA Nepal Chapter, said the journalists have been fighting for the press freedom and against the autocratic regime. The Nepal Bar Association (NBA) today directed all the Bar units across the country to observe February 1 as ‘Black Day.’ “We want to observe the day as Black Day in our constitutional and political history and we want that such a day should not repeat in future,” the lawyers’ body in a statement issued today by the general secretary of the NBA, Madhav Banskota.

The NBA also urged all the professional organisations and rights activists to participate the protest meet on February 1 to be organised by the lawyers body in Kathmandu.