Kathmandu — Amid heightened tension with India, Nepal has banned all Indian news channels, except the public service broadcaster Doordarshan.

Nepali cable operators told news agency ANI that the signals of Indian news channels have been taken off from the country.

A Nepali government spokesperson said that they are exploring legal, political, and diplomatic options to curb what he called the “misinformation” being spread about Nepal by the Indian media.

Earlier, Rajan Bhattarai, Foreign Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister of Nepal, tweeted that the news against Nepali PM KP Sharma Oli by Indian media after Kathmandu issuing new map is “condemnable”.

“We completely reject their fabricated and fake reports. We urge them to respect Nepali government and people’s unified position on our sovereignty and national independence,” he added in the tweet.

Reportedly, news channels from China and Pakistan are being broadcast, but New Delhi has been sidelined.

Tension between neighbours

The tensions between two South Asian neighbours rose after Kathmandu approved a new map which included Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani  region as parts of its territory.

Earlier on Thursday, spokesperson of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), Narayan Kaji Shrestha, slammed the Indian media for their ‘nonsense’ reports on matters related to Nepal and the Nepali government, the Himalayan Times reported.

These measures follow the events wherein an Indian news channel, Zee Hindustan, broadcast an imaginative and defamatory programme linking Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli with Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Ms Hou Yanqi.