Nepal: Investigations into the deaths of journalists Suresh Rajak and Suresh Bhul are stalling

Nepalese Prime Minister Sharma Oli promised parliamenton 31 March to bring to justice those responsible for the death of Suresh Rajak, which occured on 28 March in Kathmandu. But the Prime Minister's promise has yet to be fulfilled, as one month after the 32-year-old cameraman for Avenues TVdied in a building set on fire by protestors while he was reporting on violent demonstrations, no one has been arrested. Firefighters were unable to rescue Suresh Rajak as protestors threw stones at them.

In parallel, the investigation into the lynching of freelance journalist Suresh Bhul is also progressing slowly. On 9 November 2024, in Dhangadhi, in the west of the country, a mob beat the 30-year-old man to death. He died two days later, on 11 November. While cattle theft is the alleged motive for this crime, RSF has learned that the journalist was the target of threats from local elected officials, notably due to his activism for the right to information.

Pro-monarchy protesters target the media

The 28 March protest, during which Suresh Rajak was killed, was marked by a series of violent attacks on the media and journalists. Supporters of the former monarch, who was deposed in 2008, set fire to the offices of the Annapurna Postnewspaper, threw stones at the Kantipur Televisionstation and vandalised a vehicle belonging to Himalaya Television. The demonstrators also violently attacked a journalist from the news website Onlinekhabar.

The political climate has grown even more intense since Suresh Rajak's death. Royalists who want the monarchy restored are increasingly exasperated with the ruling government. The government, meanwhile, intends to regulate the use of social media without including any safeguards to protect journalism. The Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Prithvi Subba Gurung, who is also the government spokesperson, tabled a bill on "Operation, Use, and Regulation of Social Media in Nepal" in Parliament on 28 January. The bill prohibits the publication and sharing of posts considered "malicious," the creation of anonymous profiles, and the disclosure of "confidential" information.

Nepal ranks 90th out of 180 countries and territories in the2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index, with particularly poor scores for the legislative and economic indicators.