H.E. Surya Bahadur Thapa
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Singha Durbar
Kathmandu
Kingdom of Nepal
Fax: (011.977.1) 22.72.86
Your Excellency:
We are writing to you on behalf of the Overseas Press Club of America, representing more than 600 journalists experienced in reporting news around the world. We wish to add our voice to those of other journalism organizations, which have protested the arrest in April of 60 journalists in Nepal.
We recognize the recent internal problems that your Government has had to deal with. However, arresting professional journalists who were simply doing their jobs of reporting the news, strikes us as a step backwards for Nepal rather than an improvement in your country@quot;s situation.
As you no doubt are aware, we refer to the arrest on April l6 of a total of 60 journalists in two separate incidents in Kathmandu. First, 47 journalists were arrested while reporting on a political protest. Then 13 additional journalists were arrested for protesting the detention of their colleagues.
Actions of this kind, if sanctioned by the government of Nepal, can only damage your country@quot;s world reputation — as well as depriving your citizens who work as journalists of their rights to freedom of expression.
We respectfully urge your government to thoroughly investigate this matter — and we trust that you will report your findings publicly. We hope that you will reinforce your support for freedom of expression and freedom of the press, which are affirmed as principal foundations of democracy in Article 19 of the U.N.@quot;s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Respectfully yours,
George Bookman
Norman A. Schorr
Freedom of the Press Committee