Assault On Kantipur FM: The Regime Preparing For A Showdown

The assault on Kantipur FM premises is a window into what is about to happen. The regime is preparing for a showdown. The clouds are gathering.

They first made an illegal visit. Then they made an illegal request. When the Kantipur FM people did not comply, they sent the police to gherao the premises. Finally they backed down.

That is what will happen after the people come out into the streets in the hundreds of thousands. First they will show their teeth, then they will back down. Victory is assured.

The regime does not have the crackdown option. They will try to scare the people. And if they fail, they are going to back down. Or they are going to get washed away.

After the 1990 movement concluded, those who were guilty of illegal crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators were let go scot free. That was a big mistake. That mistake left room for the regression the country is facing right now. That mistake should not be repeated.

All acts of repression have to be documented. The guilty are to be punished once the interim democratic government gets hold of power.

In The News

• Police forcibly take away uplinking equipment from Kantipur FM NepalNews Police returned to Kantipur FM premises on late Friday-nearly three hours after they had lef-and forcibly took away key equipment used to uplink the FM’s transmission to Bhedetar station in the eastern region....... four vans of police arrived at the station at Lalitpur and forcibly took away encoder, satellite modem and digital audio recorder. They left the station at around 11:15 p. m....... demanded written orders from the MoIC team if it wanted the FM to shut down its uplinking facility....... the Ministry sent in police instead of written orders........ After nearly a five-hour-long stand-off, the MoIC team left the Kantipur FM premises at around 8 p.m. saying that they were satisfied with the information provided by the station and that they will submit their technical report to the Ministry on Sunday when the office will resume...... Kantipur Publications—the leading private sector media house in the country...... They first said they were there to inspect the FM transmissions. Later, they said they had orders to cut off the uplinking facility of the FM to its Bhedetar transmitting station in eastern Nepal...... They said it was `illegal’ to air transmission of the FM to other parts of the country as per the new media ordinance introduced early this month....... office-bearers of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Nepal Bar Association, general secretary of CPN (UML) Madhav Kumar Nepal and members of civil society have reached the office of Kantipur FM to express their solidarity....... ‘naked aggression on media by the government.’ ...... another example of ‘physical assault by the state against independent media.’..... Reporters sans Frontiers (RSF)—a Paris-based press freedom watchdog-- said Nepal ranked among ten countries at the bottom out of 167 countries surveyed in terms of press freedom.
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• UML General Secretary Nepal to visit India General Secretary of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal is leaving for India on Sunday four days after the alliance of the seven political parties mandated leaders of Nepali Congress and UML to play leading roles for the talks with the Maoists........ Nepal will hold dialogue with the Maoists if they decide to contact him...... at the invitation of the leaders of the Nepal Democracy Solidarity Committee....... KP Oli, who is currently in New Delhi, as saying that UML Supremo is expected to meet with top ranking officials of the Indian government...... Oli is in Delhi from the last week of September to hold talks with Indian leaders as well as to canvass support from UML's Pravashi wing in India, Prabashi Nepali Sangh.....
  
• Nepal among ten worse countries in terms of free press: RSF Gyanendra of Nepal is trying to wipe out 15 years of democratic achievement by the independent press with censorship and arrests and his government has sent soldiers to newspaper offices. About 150 journalists were arrested by the authorities in the first 10 days of September this year ........ The report was prepared before the royal government introduced new media law ...... Nepal has fallen behind China (159th) and Vietnam (158th).... The United States (44th) fell more than 20 places, mainly because of the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller ......At the top of the Index once again are northern European countries Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands, where robust press freedom is firmly established ....... Nine states that have had independence (or recovered it within the past 15 years) are among the top 60 countries – Slovenia (9th), Estonia (11th), Latvia (16th), Lithuania (21st), Namibia (25th), Bosnia-Herzegovina (33rd), Macedonia (43rd), Croatia (56th) and East Timor (58th)........
  
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