100 Years Of Gorkhapatra

This Saturday, on the 24th of Baisakh, Gorkhapatra is entering into hundred years of its publication. It was on this day in 1958 B.S. that Gorkhapatra, the oldest newspaper in the country, started its publication during the reign of the then Prime Minister Dev Shumsher. It was published weekly in the beginning and becoming a daily from Falgun 7, 2007 B.S.

Although that time the main objective publishing the Gorkhapatra was to provide government notices to the people, the establishment of a newspaper was a revolution in the direction of dissemination of information in the country, which otherwise was virtually closed from the outside world. One hundred years later, Gorkhapatra has grown up to become the largest and the most widely circulated newspaper in the country, providing its readers all kinds intellectual recipes, including news, opinions and advertisements. Though its aim and objectives were very limited in the inception the role it has played in the subsequent years in the field of imparting information and also in the promotion of Nepali language, art and culture is incomparable in the development of journalism in Nepal. The importance of Gorkhapatra can be gauged from the fact that even today Gorkhapatra stands as a synonym for newspaper in the country. Moreover it has also been a training centre for journalists. It is hard to imagine the country's journalistic history keeping Gorkhapatra on the outside. In this context it is a matter of great pride and also a duty for Sunday Despatch, which itself completed a decade of publication last week, to wish its sister publication a continued progress and prosperity in the years ahead. The Corporation, which publishes Gorkhapatra, is the country's largest publishing house with two broadsheet dailies, one tabloid weekly and four monthly magazines.

However, it has not been always smooth sailing for Gorkhapatra in its hundred years of publication. Being a government entity, it is often blamed for being partisan to the government.

No doubt, being owned by the government, it has the duty and the responsibility of projecting and presenting the government's views, policies and programmes. This duty Gorkhapatra has been fulfilling with unwavering faith and integrity without concerning on who is in the government. At the same time, Gorkhapatra has to awake to the new challenges and opportunities. The challenges are providing more and authentic information to the people, to give guidelines to the government and the policy-makers. The second one is competing with the private sector newspaper, which has strongly come up in the last several years, especially after the restoration of democracy ten years ago. Being a government entity, Gorkhapatra has its limitations in competing with the private sector print media. Presently, the Gorkhapatra Corporation, is at the crossroads. Successive governments are unsure whether to keep it within their fold or to let Gorkhapatra go private. It would be best if the government realises the new realities in the media sector and decide what is best for the Corporation.