Police search media offices, take journalist into custody

KATHMANDU: Police have launched action against journalists working for different media outlets over news reports concerning senior officials, including the Inspector General of Nepal Police and Supreme Court justices.

Police personnel took Bishnu Mani Subedi, a journalist with the online news portal Nepal Press, from the portal’s office in Kathmandu late Friday afternoon. The portal has shared a video of police personnel in plain clothes taking Subedi from the portal’s office on its social media page.

Nepal Press has also said that police have asked its Editor-in-Chief Matrika Paudel and Chairperson Bindukanta Lamsal to appear before the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police.

A police team also reached the office of Naya Patrika daily in search of its reporter Nawaraj Mainali.

Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) General Secretary Ram Prasad Dahal has reached the newspaper’s office to hold discussions with police personnel in plain clothes, the daily said on its social media page.

Plain clothes police personnel have also reached the office of online news portal Diyo Post.

Earlier, the portal had reported that its Editor-in-Chief Sudip Bishwakarma had received threats of arrest and police action.

According to Diyo Post, Bishwakarma was threatened and pressured through calls from an unidentified number after the portal published investigative reports concerning the chief justice and the judiciary.