Kathmandu, October 30
Home Ministry spokesperson Anand Kafle has said he needs to gather further information about the detention of journalists by police from their newsrooms.
Asked by Onlinekhabar what the ministry’s position was on journalists being taken into custody from newsrooms simply for writing news reports, Kafle said he needed to look into the matter further.
When asked whether the arrests were unknown to the Home Ministry and to him, he repeated that he was not saying he was unaware of the matter, but that he needed to understand it better.
During a nearly two-minute conversation, Kafle repeatedly said he could not say he had no information but needed to make further inquiries.
On Friday, police took Bishwamani Subedi, a journalist with Nepal Press, into custody from the newsroom at the outlet’s office in New Baneshwor.
Police also arrived at the office of Naya Patrika daily on Friday. Five plainclothes officers identifying themselves as members of the Crime Investigation Office in Teku reached the newsroom and said they needed to take correspondent Navaraj Mainali to the Cyber Bureau, according to Editor Khagendra Pant.
Police also detained Shobharaj Baral, a journalist with Motivate News, on Friday afternoon.
Dhiraj Basnet, a journalist with DNA Khabar, has also been arrested.
