NEW DELHI, March 28: A group of South Asian journalists on Monday described their visit to Kathmandu recently where they saw the media persons were being “subjected to worse intimidation and harassment at the hands of those who know nothing except coercion.” Journalists from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan visited Kathmandu as members of the South Asia Free Media Association. They demanded an immediate restoration of all the rights of free media that existed before the proclamation of the emergency rules on February 1.

“The media practitioners and media houses have been terrorized and those who responded to the call of their profession have been victimized and continue to be intimidated by various means, including detentions, takeover of news houses, closer of news and current affairs programmes, imposition of censorship, withdrawal of advertisements and subsidies, unprecedented retrenchment of journalists, and distortion of information, denial of professional responsibilities, forced migration or circumvention of movement and imposition of communication quarantine,” they said in a joint report.

Dozens of journalists were arrested, many dailies and weeklies were forced to shut down, FM radio sector stopped from relaying any news and current affairs programmes, the report said.