APRIL 11, 2005
Posted: April 13, 2005
Robin Poudel, Tanahu Aawaj
IMPRISONED
Police in the Tanahu district in western Nepal announced they would hold a local journalist for a three-month detention. The journalist, editor Robin Poudel of Tanahu Aawaj weekly newspaper, was arrested on Friday April 8 while covering a demonstration in Damauli that had been called to protest the state of emergency established by King Gyanendra.
According to local journalists, Poudel was held in the Tanahu district police office subsequent to his arrest. On Sunday, he was served a warrant notifying him that he would be detained for three months. The Kathmandu Post reported that the warrant was issued under the Public Security Act, which sanctioned the preventive detention of those considered a threat to domestic security and tranquility, according to Chief District Officer Govinda Mani Bhurtel.
Dozens of journalists were detained after King Gyanendra’s state of emergency was declared February 1. Although most journalists were held for several days and then released, as many as ten were in detention at the time, according to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists.