   CPJ
King Gyanendra has imposed a six-month ban on what state radio described as critical reporting on government activities, according to international news reports. Soldiers are posted at Nepal's major print and broadcast outlets, are controlling television broadcasts, and are vetting news articles, according to CPJ sources and international news reports. Internet and telephone communication, including domestic land lines and mobile phones, remained cut off today. Local reporters who have smuggled information from the country through satellite communications have asked not to be identified for fear of punishment by authorities. Editors at the major dailies Kathmandu Post and Kantipur have been summoned by the principal press secretary of the king and warned that they may face military punishment, according to sources inside the country. Soldiers have surrounded the offices of The Kathmandu Post and officers are scanning all content before it goes to print, according to a local source. Jana Aastha weekly, which has been critical of the monarch in the past, has been placed under special army surveillance, local sources said. Eighteen soldiers led by a colonel entered the weekly's offices at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and detained journalists there until 11 a.m. the following day, a source told CPJ. The officer censored all contents and warned reporters to avoid criticizing the king or the army. "There can be no conceivable reason for this very alarming ban on news reporting, which makes Nepal less secure by cutting off information when it is most needed," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "The ban raises grave international concerns that, at this moment of great crisis, the world is prevented from knowing what is happening in Nepal." Hundreds of people have already been arrested since the king's declaration, according to local sources. The Nepalese-language Rajdhani daily has risked punishment to publish the names of those arrested this week. Fearing punishment, hotels refused to allow foreign news crews to set up satellite dishes on their roofs, according to Reuters. Despite the great risk, Tara Nath Dahal, a prominent journalist and president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, issued a statement condemning Tuesday's royal announcement. "This has undoubtedly destroyed the fabric of democracy and has also confirmed that the lives of ordinary civilians as well as national values are in grave danger," he wrote. He called the action an "enormous mistake" which has ended Nepalese citizens' hard-won freedom of expression and press freedom. CPJ
"The suspension of civil liberties is a worrisome sign for all citizens, including journalists," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said today. "Already at great risk from both sides of the conflict between Maoists and the government, journalists are now in danger of the kind of heightened abuse by security forces that marked Nepal's last state of emergency, when scores of journalists were unjustly detained and often physically abused." The king has curtailed basic freedoms, including freedom of the press, the constitutional protection against censorship, and the right against preventive detention, according to a summary of his statement by The Associated Press. He announced his intention to restore a multi-party democracy within three years. Internet
and phone lines have been cut, and Nepal's news Web sites are out of service.
Security forces have additional powers during the state of emergency, according to the king's announcement. Even before Tuesday's declaration of a state of emergency, journalists were at risk of preventive detention and abuse by security forces. Sitaram Parajuli, executive editor of Kathmandu-based Shram weekly, told CPJ last week that he was taken into custody by security forces on December 28, tortured, and held incommunicado for nearly two weeks. He said he was kicked and shocked with electric currents by security forces interrogating him for information about possible Maoist connections. During the last state of emergency in Nepal, from November 2001 until August 2002, more than 100 journalists were detained by security forces.
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