Thursday, March 10 2005 16:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: Two more journalists have been detained by the royal Government and reporters are being continuously harassed in Nepal in one way or the other under the emergency rule, the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) said today (Mar 10, 2005).

The police arrested photojournalist Ashish Sarraf in Janakpur in southern Nepal for taking pictures of a programme organised by political parties and their sister organizations on March 8, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said quoting FNJ sources.

In west Nepal district of Tanahun, Rishiram Pokhrel, editor of weekly 'Tanahun Awaj' was also arrested for attending a similar programme organised by the political parties the same day.

Kamal Koirala, editor of 'Weekly Roadmap' and leader of Nepal Communist Party-UML was also arrested on March 4. But police released him yesterday (Mar 9, 2005).

There are at least 6 journalists currently under detention.

FNJ also said that direct censorship is still continuing in districts outside Kathmandu and in the capital weekly tabloids are mainly pressured through administrators to abide by their interest while covering news and views.

Majority of newspapers outside Kathmandu have closed down their publication and newspapers in Kathmandu are gradually cutting down their pages due to emergency rule, IFJ said.