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Maoist-affiliated workers interfere in editorial decision, disrupt newspaper distribution

Raising objections against news carried by them, the Maoist-affiliated trade union disrupted the distribution of The Himalayan Times and Annapurna Post dailies.

A week after they had let the smooth functioning of the newspapers, the Maoist affiliated workers once again stopped the copies of both the papers from coming out of the printing press in Bhaisipati, Saturday, despite police presence.

"The protesting workers said that they would not allow the distribution of the newspapers as they were carrying the news in Saturday's edition about filing of a case by APCA Nepal against office bearers of the trade union and their refusal to accept the Patan Appellate court summons," says a news posted in the daily's website.

The Patan Appellate Court had, on Friday, summoned office bearers of the Maoist-affiliated union. "A single bench of judge Buddhi Prasad Regmi had responded to a writ petition filed by APCA Nepal on Thursday. Demanding that the court protect the rights of the company guaranteed by Clause 6 (6) and 9 of the Citizens Rights Act 2012 BS, APCA Nepal had moved the court and sought an order on the Maoist union leaders against disrupting the distribution of the newspapers. The bench had issued the notices to the All Nepal Communication and Printing Publication Workers' Association, Anamnagar, its chairman Arjun Prasad Gautam, chairman of the same organisation at Sainbu, Lalitpur, Khadananda Pokhrel and Khuchindra Thapa, an office bearer of the organisation. The leaders have been asked to appear in court on Tuesday when the bench will conduct a hearing and decide on whether or not to issue a stay order."

The court has given the union leaders 15 days to submit affidavits stating the legal basis on which they planned to disrupt the distribution and threatened to kill those distributing the dailies. The union leaders, however, refused to accept the notice and court staffers on Friday pasted it at their office at Anamnagar.

"The leaders had announced that they would disrupt the distribution from Sunday and kill anyone who dared to distribute the newspapers," the website adds.

Reacting to the resumption of disruption of distribution of the two dailies, general secretary of Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Mahendra Bista said it was a blatant attack against press freedom. He added that if the disruption was caused on the basis of published news that would be more unfortunate. nepalnews.com sd Aug 12 07