Tuesday, November 29 2005 16:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: After widespread condemnation of its move to shut down a private FM channel to prevent it from broadcasting an interview by Maoist supremo Prachanda, Nepal's Royal government has said the radio can resume operations, but maintained that "no one can air a terrorist's interview."

Talking to BBC Nepali Service yesterday(Nov 29,2005) Home Minister in King Gyanendra's cabinet Dan Bahadur Shahi said the Sagarmatha FM can continue with its programmes.

"They can absolutely broadcast their programmes, but they should not broadcast what we have asked them not to," he said without elaborating.

He also denied that the government issued order to shut down the FM station.

"Where did we shut down the FM? They closed the station by their own," he claimed. "But no one can air a terrorist's interview," he added.

Sagarmatha FM moved the Supreme Court challenging the government's action, after the authorities forced its shutdown, seizing its transmission equipment and arresting five journalists in a police raid after alleging that the radio station helped to "encourage terrorism".

However, the FM channel denied the charge, saying it had earlier planned to broadcast the Maoist leader's interview, but later changed the decision. "We had decided not to air the interview and we have not violated any law," it said.

The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) yesterday organised a rally of 1,500 journalists, human rights activists and civil society members to oppose the "government's intervention in media."