Journalists sore with govt move, stage sit-in

KATHMANDU: Demanding not to deploy journalists as informants, a large number of journalists staged a sit-in in front of

the main entrance gate of Singha Durbar — which houses the country’s apex administrative bodies — here in the capital today.

The protesting journalists also called for an early implementation of recently amended Working Journalists Act. The protest was organised by the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ). A brief scuffle also ensued between the journalists and the security personnel in the area where protests are prohibited by the authorities.

Ramesh Bista, FNJ’s treasurer, said that the government was trying to misuse the journalists by appointing them as spies.

“The government’s

hidden inclination by deploying the journalists as informers is that it just wants to exploit the journalists, which is against the professionalism,” he said.