Press Freedom Day

THE media has a very responsible role to play in a democratic set-up. In a country like Nepal, which is striving hard to ensure development and also the consolidation of a fledgling democracy, the media has an even more vital role to play. It is a matter of great pride to all Nepalese media people that they had played an instrumental role in the re-ushering in of democracy in the country a little over a decade back. So it was only fitting that, as all Nepalese journalists observed the Press Freedom Day the other day, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said that journalists have to be more responsible in their duties In the present context when the hard won democracy is at stake. He was speaking at a talk programme organised by the Nepal Journalist Federation to mark the special occasion. It is true, the country is going through a difficult phase, specially in terms of the Maoist insurgency that has ravaged many districts of the country since the past couple of years. It has also been seen that the government needs the cooperation of all, including the media, to counter this threat. It is pragmatic of Prime Minister Koirala to have sought consensus of even the opposition parties in dealing with the insurgency and other problems faced by the nation.

Meanwhile, speaking on the same occasion, Minister for Information and Communication Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta informed that the government would not make any delay in formulating laws related to the free flow of information. This must have been very encouraging for all the journalists, specially those who have been complaining that information is still being withheld by certain government institutions. The authorities must remember that the government and the media should work hand in hand, as mentioned by PM Koirala, to tackle the various problems of the people. For this, it is a must for government agencies to work in a transparent way and also provide information to the press people when they ask for it. But at the same time, it is also true that some media people have not properly utilised the freedom that they enjoy in the present democratic system. Such irresponsible behaviour of some press people, could prove to be a hindrance in the smooth relations between the press and the government. On this solemn occasion, both the government and the media should pledge to sincerely work for democracy and the welfare of the people.

RNAC Transparency

IF THERE is one government-run institution that has an uncanny knack of getting into a soup with consistent regularity, it is none other than the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC). This public behemoth has time and again proved that under every circumstance and every government, it is capable of getting bogged down in controversies. The controversies are in the main generated by its aircraft leasing policy. Over the past so many years, leasing deals, one after another,. have spawned many valid accusations from the public that the national flag carrier does not spend the tax-payers’ money judiciously. Plenty of evidences have surfaced that there is more to it than meets the eye when RNAC bosses go for a particular leasing deal. Such things happen only when a public institution is well-cloaked by a policy that treats the need for transparency with disdain. The public gets to know of a deal gone awry only after the deed is done.

Such being the case, it was reassuring to hear from Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Tarini Dutta Chataut at a programme on Wednesday that the government would take up the policy of transparency for the corporation’s activities. Notably, he assured that the corporation should not lease aircraft in haste as a result of what he called "created compelling situations" like seen in the past and that the trend of initiating timely tender process to lease aircraft would be started now. Presumably, the situations referred to by Minister Chataut have to do with such state of affairs whereby the national flag carrier had no option but to somehow go for a leasing deal, however bad it may be, because the previous agreement was coming to an expiry date. The eleventh hour decision that RNAC bosses have the habit of taking regarding the leasing of aircraft has meant that the carrier has often landed up with a deal that was not the most cost-effective. All this could change if a tender is set in motion, ideally well in advance of the impending expiry date of any lease, so that the international bids could be timely assessed and the most appropriate decision could be made. As long as RNAC is short of a jet to cover its routes and there is not enough money to buy an aircraft outright, there will be a need for such periodic leasing. The obvious thing for the ministry to do for now is to ensure that when the corporation does so, the deal is well within the acceptable norms of financial propriety.