Media Release: Nepal
January 14, 2013
The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) and partner organisations in the International Media Mission
to Nepal, have addressed an open letter to the Prime Minister of Nepal, Dr
Baburam Bhattarai, urging that the law be allowed to take its course, unimpeded
by politics, in the case of the alleged murderers of journalist Dekendra Thapa.
Five political activists,
associated with Nepal’s Maoist party and a breakaway group, were arrested
between January 3 and 5 on charges of murdering Thapa, who was abducted from
his home in June 2004 and murdered on August 11, 2004.
The investigation was however,
ordered stopped by Nepal’s Prime Minister, on the grounds that a crime commited
during the war years should be dealt with through a Truth Commission, rather
than under ordinary criminal law.
The International Media Mission
to Nepal, in which the IFJ has been associated from the very beginning, has
been engaged with journalists and civil society groups in the country since
2006, seeking to strengthen the advocacy work for media freedom and the right
to free speech.
The full text of the letter
follows:
Dear Mr
Prime Minister,
We are writing to you as members of the
International Media Mission which has been engaged with journalists and civil
society groups in Nepal over the last six years, to express our concern over
your recent intervention in the case against the alleged murderers of
journalist Dekendra Thapa.
At our meeting with you in February 2012, we
discussed certain very serious challenges journalists face, identified in
consultation with our local partners in the country. Among the urgent
priorities mentioned was the need to address the prevailing climate of impunity
for attacks against journalists and others exercising their right to freedom of
expression.
At that time, we focused on a number of cases
of journalists who had been killed after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA) of 2006 and identified specific areas where we had reason to believe that
investigation and prosecution had been inadequate. At the same time, the
problem of impunity has roots in a time from before the CPA and includes
journalists who were killed during the decade-long conflict which ended with
the informal ceasefire that followed the Jana Andolan of 2005.
As a result, we were greatly encouraged to
hear that police in Dailekh district in the far-western region of Nepal had
arrested five suspects between 3 and 5 January 2013 in connection with the
August 2004 murder of Dekendra Thapa. Unfortunately, this was short-lived since
we learnt soon afterwards of your personal instruction to the police to halt
the investigation, on the grounds that a murder which occurred during the
conflict should not be subject to ordinary criminal jurisdiction.
We recognise that there is a political
consensus in Nepal on the need for a Truth Commission to deal with abuses which
occurred during the conflict period. However, we note that there is still no
agreement, after all these years, on the constitution of such a body, or on its
mandate or the modalities it would follow.
According to the confessions made by the men
arrested in Dailekh, Thapa was abducted in June 2004 and tortured for over a
month before being killed. The outrage that followed his murder led a senior
Maoist functionary to issue a public apology and to disclaim any link between
the murder and party policy.
In this context, halting a process initiated
under prevailing criminal law would send all the wrong signals and deeply erode
the confidence of Nepal’s journalistic community. As our partner, the
Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), has repeatedly emphasised, the media
community is in need of positive assurances that their safety will not be
jeopardised. This is one among many steps needed to advance the transition to a
political order in which freedom of expression and a free press are basic
democratic entitlements. Nothing could be more calculated to undermine the confidence
of the media community in this regard than halting legal proceedings against
the alleged murderers of a journalist.
We are therefore of the view that a valuable
public purpose would be served by allowing the criminal prosecution in Thapa’s
murder to proceed and ask that you withdraw your instruction to halt the case.
We also ask that you give your personal attention to other cases of journalists
who have been killed, in particular those that our partner, the FNJ, has been
tracking actively.
Thank you for your attention to this
important matter.
Yours sincerely,
Jacqueline Park
Asia-Pacific Director
International Federation of Journalists
Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Barbara Trionfi
Press Freedom Manager
International Press Institute (IPI)
Oliver Spencer
Senior Communications and Advocacy Officer
Article 19
Elisabeth Witchel
Committee to Protect Journalists
Damian Loreti
AMARC
Ashish Sen
President
AMARC Asia-Pacific
Jesper Hojberg
International Media Support
For
further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0950
The IFJ
represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries
Find
the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific
Find
the IFJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/IFJAsiaPacific