NATIONAL 3 -(Spotlight Weekly)

Off The Air

The government blocks the first-ever Nepalese satellite TV from taking off in the last minute

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

Just two days before it was to go on air via satellite, the Channel Nepal was given a sudden directive by the Frequency Management Division at the Ministry of Information and Communication asking it to refrain from going global before completing, what it called, "(final) necessary technical examination".

The move came as a bolt from the blue to the managers of the Spacetime Network Pvt. Ltd., the largest private cable operators in the country. The network had already linked itself with the Thaicom-3 satellite to launch its Nepali channel to more than 50 countries in and around the region. It could lose millions of rupees with the delay, according to its officials.

A satellite dish : Limiting the sky

Although, the officials at the Channel Nepal (Spacetime Network) are tight-lipped about the sudden government decision to obstruct its programs, the Spacetime daily, which is owned by the network has been publishing a stream of newsreports criticizing the decision.

The officials at the network have requested the Ministry to expedite the "necessary technical examination" and fix the date so as to end this "environment of confusion". The network has even offered to take all its equipment to the ministry to speed up the examination process.

Ramesh Adhikary, the technical officer at the Frequency Management Division, declined to comment on the issue and said it would be better answered by the ministry officials.

Ministry officials, on the other hand, are equally elusive about the issue. "It is up to the (frequency management) division. We at the ministry are not fully knowledgeable about what is going on. The only thing we can say is that the necessary procedural examinations is going on," said Hem Raj Poudel, spokesman at the Ministry, adding that such examination/inspection of equipment was a part of the condition that allowed the network license to operate satellite channel.

Channel Nepal is the flagship Nepalese channel of the Spacetime network and it was preparing to launch the first ever Nepalese channel via satellite. Even state-owned Nepal Television has not been able to achieve that feat.

Observers see the government's decision to obstruct the launching of Channel Nepal as mysterious. "The government should have encouraged the private sector as per its policy. But I don't understand why they are discouraging it," Dr. Badri Prasad Shrestha, former ambassador and economist, was quoted to have said in the daily.

Coming at such a short notice, the decision raised many eyebrows as it coincided with the discovery of a large amount of RDX at the residence of a Pakistani diplomat, who was consequently expelled from the country.

Interestingly, the Chairman of the Spacetime Network Jamim Shah has been alleged by the Indian media to be the agent of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence and the front-man in Nepal for Karachi-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Ibrahim is wanted in India for many crimes, including the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993, which left hundreds of people dead.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Development Committee has already decided to invite the concerned ministers, officials and chairman of Spacetime Network to investigate the developments leading to the present situation.

In fact, the Spacetime network had run into problems with the government since long time. During the tenure of immediate past Communication Minister Jaya Prakash Gupta, the network's license to operate satellite channel was revoked for reasons unexplained.

His successor Shiva Raj Joshi, the sitting minister, had overturned the decision prompting Gupta, who was then the Minister for Agriculture, to resign citing the discontinuity in the policy of the same government. And now as it began to appear that the Channel Nepal was finally going on air, the mysterious development emerged just two days prior to the launching.

Whatever the reasons that prompted the government to act in the way it did, the obstruction of the Channel Nepal can not be a good news to the investors, media as well as the general public. If it was allowed, the channel could have given the required voice to the Nepal in front of the international audience. This was felt to be more necessary in the aftermath of IC 814 hijack episode during which time the country's perspectives was not adequately represented.