Kathmandu, January 8:

The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) today urged national and international organisations to show concern over two recent incidents in which journalists were arrested and abused at Sindhuli and Baglung.

“We urge the national and international human rights organisation and press free-dom institutions to show concern and help create a situation wherein journalists can fulfil their duties boldly,” a FNJ press release stated today.

Yesterday, the Royal Nepalese Army detained a local journalist Hari Narayan Gautam in Baglung because he had disclosed that some persons who intended to break up a UML political programme by gate-crashing in the guise of Maoists, were in fact army men.

On December 3, journalists Krishna Hari Ghimire, Dwarika Kafle and others were repeatedly threatened by the army because they were found participating in a civil society programme at Sindhulimadi.

“The FNJ takes these incidents as a new tendency on part of the state to suppress the press,” the release stated, adding, “It is evident the state is now coming to the stage of direct military intervention illegally, ignoring other mechanisms of the state.”

The FNJ statement also urged the government to probe these two incident and punish the culprits.