Saturday, August 26 2006 12:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Katmandu: Press censorship has returned to Nepal despite the end of King Gyanendra's direct rule, with Maoists threatening journalists in different parts of the country and preventing them from doing their job, a global media watchdog says Friday (25Aug, 2006).

Just two months after Maoist chief Prachanda and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala signed an accord that includes protection of press freedom, Nepalese journalists are experiencing the spectre of repression and censorship re-emerging, Reporters without Frontiers (RSF) say.

The RSF statement comes in the wake of various incidents in the past 10 days, during which scribes were prevented from doing their work either by Maoists.

The rebels kept 12 journalists with them for three hours in Bara district in central Nepal on August 18, it says.

They took control of three journalists in Nuwakot bordering Kathmandu Thursday (24Aug, 2006) when they try to take pictures of Maoists recruiting youths into their militia against the ceasefire code of conduct.

The scribes are later released after issuing threats, says Mahendra Bista, general secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ).

The Maoists also prevent journalists from entering a village in Kavrepalanchowk where the rebels are allegedly exploiting peasants, FNJ says.

Similarly, in Gorkha district, the Maoists threaten local journalists who filed stories about the abduction of a 12-year girl by the rebel cadre, it adds.