We have interviewed some experts on what they think about the status of Press Freedom in Nepal after 2006 Movement. We are specially thankful to :
Professor P Kharel, President, Nepal Press Institute
Ram Krishna Regmi, Professor, Kantipur City College
Rajendra Dahal, Senior Journalist, Press Advisor of President
Bishnu Nishthuri, President AJA Nepal, Former President FNJ
Guna Raj Luitel, Associate Editor, Nagarik Daily
Shreeram Singh Basnet, Chief Editor, RSS
Achievements
Legal provision allowing FMs to broadcast news freely
Constitutional guarantee for press freedom; no restriction. (In past there used to be restriction as “you shouldn’t write on Royal Family” etc.)
Establishment of High Level Media Commission, provision of implementing Working Journalist Act, Permanent Information Commission, activation of Press Council, simplification on discerning and renewal of radio, out numbered T V channels etc
Increase of trained professionals
Editors' sphere of autonomy not disturbed
Decreasing tendency of political biasness
Obstructing Forces
Sister organizations of major political parties, mainly organizations of party-affiliated journalists like Press Union and Press Chautari.
Militant groups (especially in Terai belt)
Advertisers’ influence over media
Impunity, political biasness
Responsibility and obstructions
Party interest influence in pro-govt. media and Press Council.
Provision of government fund to party journalism.
Commercial view point: profit prior to service.
Crime, politics and glamour dominating social and development issues.
FMs generally depend upon newspapers, rarely attribute sources.
Advertisers’ influence: the major obstruction for responsibility is media persons' fear of advertisers.
In overall, Broadsheets more responsible than tabloids
Problems
The Code of Conduct for Journalists by Press Council is still not comprehensive.
Political affiliation of journalists obstructs fairness, objectivity and responsibility.
Popular weeklies known to be mouthpieces political parties.
Cases of abductions, murders of mediapersons.
Impunity and self-censorship.
No proper execution of laws and orders.
Political instability suffers media.
Effects to be taken
Constitutional guarantees in a proper way on upcoming constitution.
Impunity should be discouraged.
Depoliticization of media professional organizations.
Depoliticization in pro-governmental media and Press Council.
Freedom of media professional organizations from pro-government economic influence.
Political stability, and commitments.
Responsibility: from the side of media and journalists
Formation or amendment of necessary laws and effective implementation of them.
Local media should give priority to local issues.
Professional competition among media.
To conclude
Press and Loktantra have been two sides of a same coin. If press is weak, Loktantra is weak; and vice versa.
Politicians need to express their commitments and act accordingly for free and responsible press.
Politicians need to take advices from genuine experts before taking any decisions on press issues.
Loktantrik Aandolan focused more on political changes than in media sector.
Nepali media today is the freest in South Asia, but ironically it is least professional.
Overall the situation is on the way of improvements; and our future in the sector is better.
(The major part of a presentation by Sagarmatha College BA 2nd year students at a seminar held on 15 August.)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Threats to journalists and media in the last two months
Chairperson of Tulsipur FM (100.2 MHz), Devi Prasad Dhital ‘Hemraj ‘was shot dead by an unidentified group on July 22 in Dang.
Pramod Sah, the director of Radio Janakpur, was thrashed and injured by an unidentified gang at his residence in Janakpur onJuly 18.
The continuous threats issued to Nepalgunj Bureau Chief of Kantipur National Daily, J Pandey by Terai Janatantrik Party-Madhesh in Banke over the issue of news coverage. Journalist Pandey was repeatedly threatened of taking his life through phone calls and press conference over the news coverage entitled 'Five workers abducted' in July 7 edition of Kantipur.
Activists of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN—Maoist) vandalized the office of the far western Dhangadi-based Sudursandesh daily on July 5 for allegedly publishing anti-Maoist materials.
Keshav Bohora, a Nepalese radio journalist working with Radio Mandavi, Pyuthan was released on July 1 after more than 30 hours abduction by an unidentified gang reportedly for the news coverage on land dispute.
Murari Prasad Pokharel, District Forest Officer (DFO), of Sindhupalchok abused several journalists on June 27, for their coverage of a news. He was allegedly involved in releasing Chinese national, who was arrested with red sandalwood and orchids and was released by the District Court on a mere fine of Rs. 15,000.
Holding one thousand metric tones of newsprint imported by the Kantipur Publication at Kolkata port of India for the 26 days by Indian authorities.
Two unidentified armed men on June 14 attempted to shoot Mohan Gole, Udayapur correspondent of Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS), at Hariharpur in Dhanusha. According to the police, unidentified assailants opened fire on him while he was riding his motorcycle but one of the shots hit the visor of his helmet while another missed him completely.
(Collected from http://www.nepalpressfreedom.org/content/, official website of Freedom Forum)
Pramod Sah, the director of Radio Janakpur, was thrashed and injured by an unidentified gang at his residence in Janakpur onJuly 18.
The continuous threats issued to Nepalgunj Bureau Chief of Kantipur National Daily, J Pandey by Terai Janatantrik Party-Madhesh in Banke over the issue of news coverage. Journalist Pandey was repeatedly threatened of taking his life through phone calls and press conference over the news coverage entitled 'Five workers abducted' in July 7 edition of Kantipur.
Activists of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN—Maoist) vandalized the office of the far western Dhangadi-based Sudursandesh daily on July 5 for allegedly publishing anti-Maoist materials.
Keshav Bohora, a Nepalese radio journalist working with Radio Mandavi, Pyuthan was released on July 1 after more than 30 hours abduction by an unidentified gang reportedly for the news coverage on land dispute.
Murari Prasad Pokharel, District Forest Officer (DFO), of Sindhupalchok abused several journalists on June 27, for their coverage of a news. He was allegedly involved in releasing Chinese national, who was arrested with red sandalwood and orchids and was released by the District Court on a mere fine of Rs. 15,000.
Holding one thousand metric tones of newsprint imported by the Kantipur Publication at Kolkata port of India for the 26 days by Indian authorities.
Two unidentified armed men on June 14 attempted to shoot Mohan Gole, Udayapur correspondent of Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS), at Hariharpur in Dhanusha. According to the police, unidentified assailants opened fire on him while he was riding his motorcycle but one of the shots hit the visor of his helmet while another missed him completely.
(Collected from http://www.nepalpressfreedom.org/content/, official website of Freedom Forum)
Status of Press Freedom in Nepal after Janaandolan II
“The legal environment in Nepal for the press has improved significantly since the April 2006 uprising, and several restrictive measures were repealed shortly after Parliament was restored. The interim constitution provides for press freedom and specifically prohibits censorship, although these rules can be suspended during an emergency. Authorities are barred from closing or cancelling the registrations of media outlets due to content.”- Freedom House
>Our Score on Freedom
Overall Freedom
Freedom House measures Freedom in Nepal as “Partly Free”. Nepal has scored 4 on both Political Rights and Civil Liberties, while 1 representing the highest level of freedom and 7 representing the lowest level of freedom. (2010)
Press Freedom
Freedom House measures Freedom of the Press in Nepal as “Partly Free” with total score of 57, while 0 means the best and 100 means the worst. (2009)
Freedom House evaluates…
The law guarantees freedom of the press, and Nepalese media were active and provided diverse views in 2008, but a number of threats to media freedom remain.
While the 2007 Freedom of Information Act (FIA) has generally been met with enthusiasm by press freedom groups, there were several reports in 2008 of journalists being denied access to government information.
The FNJ reported 342 press freedom violations in 2008, and noted a rise in the number of attacks on journalists that went unpunished. Supporters of political parties regularly threatened or attacked critical journalists.
The International Press Institute reported 63 instances of press violations in the two months prior to CA elections. Journalists were denied transportation permits to cover certain election events, and security officials reportedly threatened local media groups for reporting on election-related violence. In several cases, activists with the Young Communist League (YCL), which is affiliated with then Communist Party of Nepal–Maoist (CPN-M), threatened or attacked journalists for publishing negative stories about their party. In one case, CPN-M supporters in Kaski kidnapped a journalist following critical coverage. Other political parties and the Armed Police Force were also responsible for violence and intimidation during the campaign.
The southern Terai region remained a hostile environment for journalists.
(The first part of the presentation by Sagarmatha College BA 2nd year students at a seminar held on 14 August).
>Our Score on Freedom
Overall Freedom
Freedom House measures Freedom in Nepal as “Partly Free”. Nepal has scored 4 on both Political Rights and Civil Liberties, while 1 representing the highest level of freedom and 7 representing the lowest level of freedom. (2010)
Press Freedom
Freedom House measures Freedom of the Press in Nepal as “Partly Free” with total score of 57, while 0 means the best and 100 means the worst. (2009)
Freedom House evaluates…
The law guarantees freedom of the press, and Nepalese media were active and provided diverse views in 2008, but a number of threats to media freedom remain.
While the 2007 Freedom of Information Act (FIA) has generally been met with enthusiasm by press freedom groups, there were several reports in 2008 of journalists being denied access to government information.
The FNJ reported 342 press freedom violations in 2008, and noted a rise in the number of attacks on journalists that went unpunished. Supporters of political parties regularly threatened or attacked critical journalists.
The International Press Institute reported 63 instances of press violations in the two months prior to CA elections. Journalists were denied transportation permits to cover certain election events, and security officials reportedly threatened local media groups for reporting on election-related violence. In several cases, activists with the Young Communist League (YCL), which is affiliated with then Communist Party of Nepal–Maoist (CPN-M), threatened or attacked journalists for publishing negative stories about their party. In one case, CPN-M supporters in Kaski kidnapped a journalist following critical coverage. Other political parties and the Armed Police Force were also responsible for violence and intimidation during the campaign.
The southern Terai region remained a hostile environment for journalists.
(The first part of the presentation by Sagarmatha College BA 2nd year students at a seminar held on 14 August).
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The beginning
Ok, the blog is begun now.
We, the students of Sagarmath Collge studying journalism, had been thinkning of creating a group blog since some months. Today, we made it!
In this blog you can share your ideas concerning many issues surrounding media and discuss on the ideas presented. This is the blog, created by few; but this is the blog, created for all of you. Please feel easier to comment on our contents and suggest further.
Representing the team,
Diwakar Pyakurel
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