Govt denies approving newsroom raids that held three journalists

Education Minister and government spokesperson Sasmit Pokharel said on Tuesday, November 3, that police did not have the government's full approval to enter a newsroom and question journalists, calling it an internal police probe into a leak, OnlineKhabar reported.

"It was not done with the government's full approval or anything of that sort. Neither the government nor the prime minister knew about it. The police acted on their own to investigate the leak of internal information," Pokharel told reporters after a Cabinet meeting at Singha Durbar, according to OnlineKhabar. One of the three, Nepal Press reporter Bishwamani Subedi, was held after his outlet reported the government was weighing removing the police chief, Nepali Times reported. Police also questioned Nepal Press newsroom leaders about their sources, the outlet reported.

The episode Pokharel was explaining happened on Friday, October 30. Plainclothes officers visited several Kathmandu newsrooms that day, taking DNA Khabar editor-in-chief Dhiraj Basnet, Motive News editor Shobhraj Baral and Nepal Press reporter Bishwamani Subedi into custody, Nepali Times reported. Officers also searched the Naya Patrika newsroom for reporter Nawaraj Mainali and visited Diyo Post seeking editor-in-chief Sudeep Bishwakarma and news coordinator Madan Dhungana, leaving when they could not find them, the outlet reported.

The three held journalists were released that evening after questioning, and no arrest warrants were shown, the Federation of Nepalese Journalists said, according to Daily Excelsior. FNJ general secretary Ram Prasad Dahal called the action "unconstitutional."

The raids came a day after several outlets reported that Prime Minister Balendra Shah had sought the resignation of Police Inspector General Dan Bahadur Karki over Karki's alleged links to Inam Sapkota, who Daily Excelsior reported is in police custody on money laundering and indecent behaviour charges. Pokharel called those reports misleading on Tuesday, saying police were tracing how information about the IGP had reached the media before it was verified, OnlineKhabar reported.

Pokharel said that once Shah learned of the newsroom visits, he instructed police to stop detaining journalists for questioning, and denied that anyone had been arrested or taken into custody, OnlineKhabar reported. Nepal Police told a different story on the night of the raids. Its clarification said the journalists were not detained but brought in for "routine questioning" on orders from the prime minister's office, Nepali Times reported. That clashes with Pokharel's claim that neither the government nor the prime minister knew.

Separately, the Cabinet on Tuesday recommended two ordinances to Nepal's President Ram Chandra Paudel, including one to amend the Press Council Nepal Act, 1992, Pokharel said, according to OnlineKhabar. The second would amend laws covering culture, tourism and civil aviation, the outlet reported. Pokharel did not say what the amendment would change, according to OnlineKhabar.

What the coverage missed

Pokharel called the reports misleading, OnlineKhabar reported. DC Nepal reported the government understood police were looking into a leak of misleading and sensitive information. Daily Excelsior and Nepali Times reported what the leaked stories were about. Shah had reportedly sought Inspector General Karki's resignation over his alleged links to Inam Sapkota, who is in police custody on money laundering and indecent behaviour charges, Daily Excelsior reported. The same week, Naya Patrika published a leaked WhatsApp exchange involving Supreme Court Justice Hari Phuyal and Sapkota, and officers went to its newsroom looking for its reporter Nawaraj Mainali, Nepali Times reported. No cited outlet says why police wanted each reporter. Nepali Times linked only Subedi's detention to a specific story.

Pokharel's denial that the government or the prime minister knew about the raids is also not new. The PM's press adviser, Deepa Dahal, made the identical claim in a public post on the evening of October 30, the day of the raids, saying Shah, his secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office had no knowledge and that Shah had ordered immediate release, Nepali Times reported.

What we still do not know

• Who gave the "orders from above" that officers cited when they declined to show a warrant, Nepali Times reported. Nepal Police's Cyber Bureau or the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office could answer that.
• What the Cabinet's ordinance actually changes in the Press Council Nepal Act, and whether its draft text is public. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology or the Cabinet Secretariat could answer that.
• Whether Inspector General Karki has responded on the record to the reports linking him to Sapkota. Nepal Police Headquarters or Karki himself could answer that.
• Whether the government will open an inquiry into who ordered the newsroom visits, as press groups have demanded. That is a question for the Prime Minister's Office or the Home Ministry.