Maoist union halts publication of Kantipur
Despite widespread condemnation against their action of disrupting the collection and publishing of advertisements in Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, the pro-Maoist trade union has prevented the two dailies from being published on Thursday night.
The two popular dailies have, subsequently, failed to hit the news-stands on Friday.
The disruption of publication of newspapers has come even as the country is celebrating the Right To Know Day on September 28.
According to the reports, the pro-Maoist union disrupted the printing of newspapers at the last minute. While the national edition of the newspapers has been disrupted, their Eastern Regional and Bharatpur editions have been published.
Earlier, the Maoist-affiliated trade union had prevented Kantipur Publication to take in advertisements and publishing them from Wednesday. The Publication has said that the union move was aimed at financially crippling the publication and attacking the freedom of press.
The Publication had said that although earlier the All Nepal Communication and Printing Publication Workers' Union, which is affiliated with the Maoists, had agreed to sign an agreement reached with the management on September 9; they suddenly backed down and announced agitation by giving an ultimatum of September 25. The Publication had claimed that the union had resorted to stopping the publishing despite assurances to fulfill their demands. It said that this smacks of their totalitarian character.
In the past, the Maoist-affiliated union had similarly stopped publishing of Nepal Samacharpatra, The Himalayan Times and Annapurna Post dailies.
Meanwhile, a senior Maoist leader has claimed that his party has 'no policy of interfering in press freedom.'
"We support press freedom," said CP Gajurel aka Gaurav, a politburo member of the Maoists.
Referring to the problem in Kantipur Publication, Gajurel said, "That is an internal matter between the workers and management. They should settle their problems themselves." nepalnews.com sd Sep 28 07
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