KATHMANDU, May 4: This year´s Courageous Journalism Award ´ has been presented to Rajesh KC, cartoonist of Nagarik Daily on Friday.
The award is presented every year jointly by International Press Institute (IPI), Nepal Chapter, and Freedom Forum to a journalist on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.
Journalist KC was felicitated with the award in recognition of his long contribution to freedom of expression through the medium of cartoon.
Handing over the award to KC at a talk programme on ´Status and Challenges of Freedom of Expression in Nepal´, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairperson Kedar Nath Upadhyay said the freedom of expression and human rights have been bearing the brunt with deteriorating status of press freedom coupled with growing impunity in the country.
PHOTO: KESHAB THOKER/ REPUBLICA
Calling on the government to remain serious towards addressing unchecked impunity in the country, he argued that none´s human rights would be guaranteed until impunity was put to an end.
Speaking on the occasion, IPI, Nepal Chapter Chairperson Padma Singh Karki, Freedom Forum Chairperson Taranath Dahal, former Chairpersons of Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) Harihar Birahi, Suresh Acharya and Dharmendra Jha said the Nepali media has been reeling under self-censorship in one or other way.
The growing state of self-censorship has also been a serious blow to people´s constitutionally guaranteed right to information as journalists have not been able to bring out the issues of public concern, they said.
On the occasion, INSEC Chairperson Subodh Pyakurel, human rights activist Prof. Kapil Shrestha, felicitated personality KC, among others highlighted various problems the journalism sector and people have been facing regarding right to freedom of expression.
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