Raid is latest in long line of royal crackdowns on media

The latest attack on the media by Nepal's royal government is the most dramatic since it came to power in a coup in February.

According to a report issued last month by the International Press Freedom Mission to Nepal, a group of 11 international organisations including the UN, 'media practitioners are summoned almost every day to barracks and police stations to 'explain' particular news items and editorials'.

The government's hardline approach to the press began the day it seized power on February 1, when soldiers were sent to newsrooms across Kathmandu to check what was being written and broadcast. Controls seemed to slacken since then, but a law passed last month imposed firm new controls.

The government believes the media is damaging its campaign against Maoist rebels. Human rights groups say the government wants to silence reports of abuses by the security forces.

Kunda Dixit, the editor of the Nepali Times, says FM radio stations are being targeted because they reach thousands of rural listeners who cannot read, or cannot afford a daily newspaper.

Nepal's independent radio sector was once the freest in South Asia, he says, and Sagarmatha FM, which was shut yesterday, was the first independent station in the region.