HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Aug. 9: Journalists all over the world are calling for absolute freedom of Press. But it is necessary for them to remember that they must have feeling of absolute resonsibility towards the society.

Charles Fletcher, head of Baltic Media Centre (BMC), Scotland office said, this while talking to The Rising Nepal today.

Freedom of press does not mean that you can say what you like about any body. Freedom of press means you have to be responsible and you have to properly, fairly and accurately report the facts. That is true freedom of the press, Fletcher said.

Fletcher, who was in Nepal for last two weeks to conduct a training for trainers organized recently by Nepal Press Institute in Chitawan for senior mofussil journalists, said: "I found them here highly motivated to improve the quality of journalism and develop professionalism."

Replyinf to a query, former Europe Manager of BBC World Service said: "You learn journalism by doing the jobs.

Journalistic techniques and proficiency can be aqquired best through actual and practical experience. But journalist calling is too complex today and requires more training and skills on the part of practising journalists than it did years ago."

BMC was set up eight years ago to help journalists from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and from some parts of Russia, Fletcher said.

He west on: "At first we concentracted our works in the Baltic region. But since last two years, BMC is expanding its activities out of Baltic region."

BMC has a firm belief that Nepal is the logical and obvious centre for a regional development of media trainings and this is what we will be aiming to do over the coming years as well. We will be highlighting and doing a lot of media trainings for six countries around South Asia and use Nepal as an appropriate centre for it, Fletcher said.

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