Supreme Court slaps journos Dhungana and Kandel 3 months jail on contempt of court
KATHMANDU/ September 30 : The Supreme Court (SC) of Nepal sentenced journalists Nabin Dhungana and Yubraj Kandel to three months in prison on Sunday for contempt of court after they published a fake audio on their online news portal Sidhakura.com.
The extended full bench, which included chief justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha and justice Prakash Man Singh Raut, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Hari Prasad Phunyal, Nahkul Subedi, Binod Sharma, Mahesh Sharma Paudel, and Bal Krishna Dhakal, ruled that the audio content they broadcasted on the news website attracted contempt of court.
According to the verdict, both Dhungana and Kandel will be imprisoned for three months. They have been sentenced in accordance with Section 17(4) of the Administration of Justice Act, 2016 (2073 B.S.). The Supreme Court stated that the content was published without verification and contained misleading information that called the judiciary into question. However, journalists confessed before the court and swore not to repeat such acts; the punishment will be reduced to one week in prison.
According to the verdict, Sidhakura can have their sentence waived by paying a fine of Rs 5,000 and issuing an apology. The judgment specifies that if the publisher and editor of Sidhakura provide a written apology for the broadcast’s content, the sentence will be reduced to 7 days. Timalsina’s case has been resolved, and the imposed sentence must be served.
The court has also stated that the audio contributed to the spread of distrust in the court and that repeated publicity of the content was done with malicious intent. According to the Supreme Court, Sidhakura.com published a fake audio clip provided to them by Raj Kumar Timalsina that claimed Supreme Court judges were involved in a case settlement. Timalsina has been jailed for six months.
On April 26, Sidhakura published a news report titled “Sting operation of meeting including SC justice for dismissing over 400 corruption cases,” which incriminated SC justices and others. Timalsina had provided the audio recording for broadcast.
On April 29, the Supreme Court directed Sidhakura to remove the news report incriminating SC justices within 24 hours and not to publish any follow-up material or rebroadcast it. The court also ordered police to look into the audio content published by Sidhakura. According to the court’s order, the Nepal Police Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) launched an investigation into the matter.
According to the Supreme Court’s order, Nepal Police formed a six-member committee, led by Deputy Inspector General Nabinda Aryal, chief of the Cyber Bureau, to investigate the audio content of the “Dark File” series. The committee concluded that the audio was fabricated.
Earlier, Media Action Nepal has raised significant concerns regarding the directives from the Press Council Nepal and the Supreme Court, emphasizing that accusations of fake news should be subject to rigorous validation through a transparent legal process.
Journalists Dhungana and Kandel released
[Updated : October 6/2024]
In the meantime, journalists Dhungana and Kandel were released on October 6, 2024, after submitting a written apology to the Supreme Court (SC) of Nepal, promising not to repeat their actions.
They had previously been sentenced to three months in prison for contempt of court after publishing a fake audio on their online news portal, Sidhakura.com.
Their sentencing fell under Section 17(4) of the Administration of Justice Act, 2016 (2073 B.S.). The SC had stated that the content was published without proper verification and contained misleading information, calling the judiciary into question. However, after journalists confessed their mistake and pledged not to engage in similar act again, their punishment was reduced to one week in prison.
The extended full bench, which included chief justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha and justice Prakash Man Singh Raut, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Hari Prasad Phunyal, Nahkul Subedi, Binod Sharma, Mahesh Sharma Paudel, and Bal Krishna Dhakal, ruled that the audio content broadcast on the news website constituted contempt of court.
