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Professionals press govt to resolve issue
KATHMANDU, JUN 25 -
Civil society leaders and representatives of various professional associations on Friday urged the government to secure the release of newsprint of Kantipur Publications held up in Kolkata after holding talks with the Indian government. They vowed any type of support to the Publications, be it legal or moral.
Indian authorities have been holding up 1,000 metric tonnes of newsprint the Publications has imported from third countries at the Kolkata port for the past 29 days.
Around a dozen representatives of Nepal Bar Association (NBA), Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Nepal Medical Association (NMA), Nepal Teacher’s Association (NTA), All Nepal Teacher’s Association-Revolutionary (ANTA-R), Human Rights Organisation of Nepal (HURON) and Reporters’ Club visited the offices of Kantipur Publications to express their solidarity.
“They want to block the voice of the people by holding up the newsprint for about a month. It is a grave violation of press freedom and human rights,” said Nepal Bar Association (NBA) Chairman Prem Bahadur Khadka.
Khadka vowed to support the Publications in tackling the issue. “With the holding up of the newsprint at Kolkata port, people are deprived of their right to information. NBA is ready to provide the Publications with legal support,” Khadka added.
FNJ Chairman Dharmendra Jha said Indian authorities have no right to block the passage of the newsprint as the Nepal-India Transit Treaty and the Universal Declaration of United Nations has guaranteed people’s right to information and press freedom. “We have informed the international community about the issue through our own network and they have also expressed serious concern about it.”
NMA Chairman Kedar Narsingh KC urged the government to take measures to release the shipment and ensure people’s right to information. “People’s right to information should not be violated at any cost and the decision to block the newsprint at the port is against the transit treaty,” KC said.
HURON Chairman Sudeep Pathak said the government should take immediate steps to release the newsprint. “As mentioned in the International Humanitarian Law and the Universal Declaration of the United Nations, the government should take immediate measures to release the newsprint,” Pathak said.
ANTA-R Chairman Gunaraj
Lohani and NTA Chairman Mohan Lohani expressed their solidarity
with the Publications and vowed their support.
Posted on: 2010-06-26 07:29
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