Hindu Yuva Sangh burnt copies of the leading Nepali newspapers, Kantipur and Annapurna Post on 18 April in the southern city of Birgunj. The newly formed group —- which advocates the restoration of Nepal’s Hindu nation status — torched hundreds of copies of the dailies, claiming they did not cover relevant issues pertaining to the HYS.
Thirty-four Tibetans were arrested in Kathmandu last Wednesday, for staging demonstrations. The protests, outside a Buddhist monastery and the Chinese Embassy, were commemorating the 1959 Tibetan uprising. This crackdown on pro-Tibet actions coincides with an increase in security measures in Lhasa. 2,800 police officers have been deployed in the city in anticipation for potential violence this week during the second anniversary of the 2008 riots.
A journalist and councillor for the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), Tika Bista, was yesterday found in an unconscious state near her home. According to Bista’s colleague Dhanbir Dahal, she had called him saying three men were following her before the incident. A laptop and two mobile phones belonging to Bista were found damaged nearby and documents written by the journalist were scattered at the scene. Bista had received a threatening phone call on 29 November about an article she had written criticizing the UCPN Maoist Party. Read more here
The South Asia Media Solidarity Network is an alliance of journalists’ trade unions, press freedom organisations and journalists in South Asia committed to working together to promote freedom of expression, freedom of association and journalists’ rights in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.