Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 17:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has expressed serious concern over the state of media in Nepal following the recent political change.

Issuing a press statement today through the UN Information Centre in Kathmandu, UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsura described the move to suspend civil liberties and freedom of expression a “serious setback”.

“The gains over the past 15 years in terms of Press freedom, and therefore, of democratic progress, have been obliterated in the space of a few days. However, Press freedom like other fundamental freedoms, is indispensable for a properly functioning society. Nepal will not be able to live in peace without respecting these fundamental rights, democracy and the multi-party system,” he has said in the statement.

UNESCO is the only UN agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and of Press. Its constitution requires the organisation to “further universal respect for justice, rule of law, and human rights and fundamental freedoms, which are affirmed for the peoples of the world without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the UN Charter”.

CPJ, too, worried:

Kathmandu: New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has written to the Nepali ambassador in Washington, voicing serious concern over curtailment of freedom of Press in Nepal.

CPJ deputy director and CPJ Washington DC representative handed over the letter to Kedar Bhakta Shrestha. “The CPJ is deeply alarmed at the treatment of Nepali journalists...we urge your government to restore press freedom immediately,”states a CPJ release of Thursday. — HNS