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KATHMANDU, March 13 (AFP) - The Paris-based journalist watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) Wednesday urged the Nepalese government to release 28 journalists being held under emergency law.

Under a state of emergency imposed in November to combat an increasingly violent Maoist insurgency, the media has been subject to censorship and the government has warned against publishing anything that could encourage the Maoists.

The RSF's Vincent Brossel, who has been in Nepal for a week investigating the position of the media, said: "After the declaration of the state emergency last November, RSF had expressed its concern that press freedoms guaranteed by the democratic constitution of Nepal could be attacked and restrained.

"The arrest of more than 100 journalists and press collaborators since the emergency has shown that we were right to be worried," Brossel said.

Most have been released, but 28 remain in custody, he said.

Earlier this month Gopal Budhathoki, editor and publisher of a left-wing weekly newspaper disappeared.

Three days later the government admitted he had been arrested by the army because his newspaper was "discouraging" the armed forces in their fight against the Maoists.

Brossel said he had a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday to discuss the detained journalists.

"Prime Minister Deuba told the RSF mission that there was no limitations to press freedom and that the investigations regarding the editors and journalists recently taken into custody are going on," he said.

The RSF also asked Deuba that local and foreign journalists be allowed to travel to areas where the army are involved in operations against the Maoists, mainly in rural districts of the country.

Brossel said he was pleased that there was no major censorship by the government.

"The RSF has observed with satisfaction that the main private newspapers and FM radios are not facing major censorship from the government in spite of the fact that the government is facing a very serious situation."

The Maoists have been fighting for a communist republic since 1996 and more than 2,600 people have died in the violence. 

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