Police Raid Newsrooms in Kathmandu, Three Journalists Taken Into Custody and Released Hours Later

Police in Nepal's capital Kathmandu have raided the offices of several news outlets. At least three journalists were taken into custody in the operation, and several others, including an editor, were ordered to appear before the Cyber Crime Bureau.

On Friday, police entered the office of the daily Naya Patrika and stayed for about two hours. They tried to detain the paper's editor Khagendra Panta and senior reporter Nabaraj Mainali. Police later left the office after ordering the two to appear before the Cyber Crime Bureau.

The same day, the cyber bureau summoned and took into custody Bishwamani Subedi, senior reporter of the online portal Nepal Press, its editor-in-chief Matrika Paudel and its chairman Bindu Raj Lamsal. Attempts were also reportedly made to detain journalists of another online outlet, Diopost.

The detained journalists were released after a few hours of questioning. Neither the police nor any government agency gave an official reason for why they were detained or summoned.

Analysts see a link between the raids and two recent news reports. Some outlets recently reported that the Nepal government was planning to dismiss police chief Dan Bahadur Karki. Nepal Police dismissed that report as 'baseless' in a statement.

Separately, Naya Patrika published an investigative report by editor Khagendra Panta and Nabaraj Mainali. It claimed that an influential man named Inam Sapkota had contacted Supreme Court justice Hari Prasad Phuyal to request the dismissal of a case linked to the interests of Prime Minister Balendra Shah. The report triggered uproar inside Nepal's judiciary.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah's office said the government had no involvement in the incident and that the prime minister knew nothing beforehand about the detention of journalists or the newsroom raids. The office said that once he learned of it, instructions were given to release the detained journalists quickly and to ban police entry into newsrooms.

The ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) also criticised the move. Party spokesperson Jagdish Kharel said harassing or arresting journalists over published news runs against the freedom of the press and the right to expression guaranteed by the constitution.

Press Council Nepal, the country's semi-statutory press body, strongly condemned the police raids in a statement. It said taking journalists away before a holiday without any specific reason, arrest warrant or court permission was 'deeply worrying'.

The Press Council added that any complaint relating to news falls within its own specific legal jurisdiction. It called on the government to follow the prescribed legal path instead of intimidating journalists by sending in the police directly.

The report also noted that over the past few months there have been multiple allegations in Nepal of mainstream media advertising being stopped and of journalists being pressured directly through the cyber bureau, bypassing the Press Council.