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NO ONE CAN AND SHOULD TRY TO SUPPRESS MEDIA AND SO FREEDOM OF SPEECH. THE STAND KAMANA GROUP TOOK WILL BE WRITTEN IN HISTORY OF NEPALESE JOURNALISM.
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Samacharpatra resumes publication; PM says obstruction is intolerable
After five days of suspending publication of Nepal Samachapatra daily and Mahanagar eveninger, the Kamana Publications has resumed the two dailies from Sunday.
The publications were resumed after the pro-Maoist workers withdrew their agitation and ended obstructions.
At a meeting held, on Saturday, among the representatives of Publications, pro-Maoist trade union, and workers working under Customer Solution company – which has been out-sourced to distribute the newspapers – the latter agreed to withdraw their strike.
The meeting was held at the initiative of Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) – Kamana Publications Unit. The workers (dispatchers and delivery boys) affiliated with pro-Maoist All Nepal Media, Press and Publications Workers Association had demanded their registration as trade union of Kamana even as they have been contracted out to work under Customer Solution leading to the obstruction in the publications. The management of the Publications had maintained that they cannot register the union from an independent company.
"I hope similar obstruction do not take place again. It is the victory of press freedom," said Pushkar Lal Shrestha, executive chairman of the Publications.
"We have taken the pressures on independent workers to work under particular political party and obstructions of publication of newspapers as a direct interference in free press rather than aimed at establishing professional rights," the Publisher's Note in the Nepal Samacharpatra daily on Sunday says.
Meanwhile, on Saturday Shrestha was invited by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at his residence in Baluwatar where the former briefed him about the agitation leading to obstruction of publications.
"It is the press freedom that shows whether there is democracy in the country. I cannot tolerate the situation of obstruction in press in democracy," Shrestha quoted the PM as saying. nepalnews.com sd Jun 24 07
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