[Swprograms] King of Nepal cracks down, cuts 'net, BBC on FM

[Joel Rubin <jmrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Obviously, a post like this to this mailing list has, as its primary
message "There are times when shortwave trumps the internet and local
relays of international stations."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/international/asia/08nepal.html

February 8, 2005
Nepal's King Cracks Down on Politics and News Media
By AMY WALDMAN

KATMANDU, Nepal, Feb. 7 - Instead of the usual spicy mix of current
affairs and politics, the subject of Radio Sagarmatha's talk show on
Saturday night was as bland as rice.

In fact, the subject was rice: the differences, as explained by a
scientist, between golden, wild and other varieties. That was the only
topic the independent Nepali FM station felt safe to discuss.

"Normally I don't do that kind of program," a 31-year-old journalist
at the station said, laughing nervously as a soldier listened. When
the soldier - one of six lounging around the station - moved off, the
smile fell away.

"Our hands are tied," the journalist said.

Six days ago Nepal's king ended the country's 15-year experiment with
democracy and took power for himself, imposing a state of emergency
and suspending a host of civil liberties, including freedom of
expression. Nepalis have been facing something between fear and a
farce since then, adjusting to a combination of royal rule and martial
law. Those in politics and the news media feel particularly under
siege. 

 In a televised address last Tuesday morning, King Gyanendra said he
was taking power for three years because the country's fractious
political parties had failed to hold elections or bring Maoist rebels
to peace talks. As he spoke, phone lines and Internet connections were
being cut, political and student leaders were being detained and
soldiers were arriving at news organizations' offices to take on their
new role as censors.

Nepalis now have no freedom of assembly, expression or opinion; no
right to information, property or privacy; and no protection from
preventive detention. The government has banned any criticism of the
king's action for six months, and any public comment that could affect
the morale of the security agencies.

[...]

All of the community radio stations that sprang up in the 1990's are
locked up, playing only music or discussing things like rice. The
BBC's popular Nepali news service has been stopped, and Netra K. C.,
its reporter in the western city of Nepalganj, has been detained,
according to human rights activists. Newspapers have been reduced to
editorializing about safely banal subjects, like the weather or clean
socks, or resorting to metaphor to make their case.

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