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Kathmandu, Saturday, December 18, 1999 Paush 03rd, 2056.
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Ensure
freedom to media
The periodic attempts
by the government to control dissemination of information on the
pretext of regulating the functions of the country’s mass
media in a systematic manner is a matter of grave concern to all those
who value freedom of the press. The reasons behind uncalled for
intervention is something which has become too obvious to need any
elaboration.
The members of all political establishments including the government
want to maintain an upper-hand vis-a-vis the members of the
intelligentsia. The government - indeed all post-1990 governments -
has time and again interfered in the professionally proper functioning
of free electronic and print media.
Strangely, last year
the then NC led coalition government led by the then Prime Minister
and present aspirant, Girija Prasad Koirala, raided two
vernacular weeklies in the capital and more than 21 journalists were
put behind the bar for their alleged connections with the Maoist
movement. Within a week, the government again seized a number of
weeklies in different parts of the country. This year the government
has, without any hesitation, attempted to control private FM radio
and, by creating a fear psychosis, the print media. This becomes all
the more intriguing as all this is taking place under parliamentary
sky which is ideally supposed to ensure unhindered flow of information
regardless of whether the dissemination of information in question is
harmful for the people in power. The least anyone can do about this is
to leaf through the Constitution of Nepal which not only guarantees
press freedom but the right to information to each Nepali citizen.
The dissemination of
information should no doubt be professional irrespective of the
personalities involved. It is not that there aren’t any legal
provisions and Acts that ensure free flow of information. Apart from
the Constitution, the Broadcasting Act of 1993 also allows private
parties to operate television channels and FM radio stations. However,
the government has failed to show any positive attitude towards the
private print and electronic media especially on news and views. The
government has always used the state owned media as a propaganda tool
even a decade after the restoration of democracy. This is no doubt
against the national communications policy drafted in true spirit of
the Constitution. The government has also ratified the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights-1990 and the UN Convention on Civil and
Political Rights 1996 which binds member countries to guarantee in
words and deeds the freedom of press and freedom of expression.
The government can
neither regulate the private media nor monitor state owned media if it
at all believes in freedom of press or expression. It has to act
according to the spirit of the constitution rather than acting
according to what it sees as party or its leaders’ interests. The
fourth estate, if it is undermined, would never strengthen the values
and norms of democracy. The importance of the fourth estate in
democratic country, therefore, should always be placed above the
interest of the individuals, party and government.
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