KATHMANDU, April 3 -- The act of Asgar Ali, an information technology advisor to Prime Minister KP Oli, to make unauthorized access to and delete a news report by Kathmandupress.com, a capital-based online news portal, is tantamount to crime against the media, experts have said.

"Since the government cannot impose pre-censorship, any individual associated with the government, too, cannot do the same," advocate Rudra Nepal who is also the chairperson of the Progressive Lawyers' Association affiliated to the ruling Nepal Communist Party, told Republica.

Nepal also stated that the government could regulate the media on matters related to national sovereignty and territory of the nation as well as the other serious limitations imposed by th...