Nepal Samachar- patra suspends publication Kantipur Report KATHMANDU, June 20 - Kamana Prakashan Samuha (P) Ltd on Tuesday decided to halt publication of Nepal Samachar Patra, a vernacular daily, for a few days from Wednesday after a group of hawkers affiliated to Customer's Solution Pvt Ltd, an independent agency, created obstruction in its regular work. Issuing a statement, Executive Chairman and Chief Editor at the Publications Puskar Lal Shreshta said the company took the "unpleasant decision" after newspaper hawkers associated with Customer's Solution exerted undue pressure on the publications demanding that they be allowed to register a Maoist-aligned All Nepal Communication, Press and Publications Trade Union. The group obstructed the company from publishing the evening edition of its Sandhyakalin even on Tuesday. The same group has been carrying out various protest programs and creating obstacles to regular work at the office since the last six weeks, demanding that management fulfill their demands. The publication has a contract with Customer's Solution for distributing its publications in Kathmandu Valley. "Since the hawkers are associated with another agency the publications is not liable, on legal, moral and technical grounds, for fulfilling their demands," Shrestha said. "Such political and illegal intervention is an extreme violation of independent press." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nepal Samacharpatra suspends publication Kamana Prakashan Samuha, one of the largest private publication houses in the country, has halted publication of Nepal Samacharpatra daily from Wednesday for the next few days. In a statement, Puskar Lal Shrestha, executive chairman of the publication house, said the publication of the daily has been suspended after a group of hawkers affiliated to Customer's Solution created obstruction in its regular work. Shrestha further said the Samuha took this unpleasant decision after hawkers exerted undue pressure on the publication house demanding that they be allowed to register a Maoist-aligned All Nepal Communication, Press and Publications Trade Union. The agitators also prevented the publication of the Samuha's eveninger Mahanagar on Tuesday. The agitators have been carrying out various protest programmes and creating obstacles on regular work of the publication house since the last six weeks. Customer's Solution is the distributor for this publication house in Kathmandu. "Since the hawkers are associated with another agency, the publication is not liable, on legal, moral and technical grounds, for fulfilling their demands. Such political and illegal intervention is an extreme violation of independent press," Shrestha said in his statement. This is the first time that a leading private daily has suspended its publication after 1990. nepalnews.com ia June 20 07 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nepali daily to halt publication for ‘a few days’ Himalayan News Service Kathmandu, June 19: Nepali national daily Nepal Samacharpatra will not hit the stands for “a few days” from tomorrow due to some “disturbances caused by dispatchers,” a press release issued today by the executive chairman and chief editor of the daily, Pushkar Lal Shrestha, said. The release also appealed to civil society, political parties, the media and professional organisations to safeguard the professional rights of the free media. “We have felt that there is unnecessary political intervention and gross violation of press freedom by the dispatchers, who are demanding the approval to form a trade union,” Shrestha said in the statement. According to the release, the dispatchers are not in any way affiliated with the publication house. “We have signed a contract with Costumer Solution Pvt Ltd and the dispatchers are provided by the company,” Shrestha added.