Answers to common Nepali queries comes all along from America

I remember the 1990 days when the entire opposition to the then system cut joke at the powers that be then in having kept the Gorkhapatra, The Rising Nepal, The Radio Nepal and albeit the Nepal Television under its tight control. They wished the media controlled and dictated by the government then should be made free to write even against the men manning the system. However, the managers of the then regime for understandable reasons did not listen to the opposition demands. This notwithstanding, the champions of the 1990 movement assured the agitating population that should they come to power, the government controlled media would be freed.

Why any government, good or bad wishes to keep control over the national media becomes clear from the fact that today's democratic order too has toed the lines of the erstwhile regime contrary to its prior assurances. Skeptics even say that the democratic order has rather kept the state owned and controlled media more in its grip than the previous regime itself.

This means that "governments" need media very badly. But why they wish to do so and why they need it? What were the benefits after all? And why it is that with every change in government, there is a major shakeup seen in the state owned media organizations?

Thanks the befitting answer to all these common queries in Nepal has come all along from the United States. The February 2001 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and issued by the State Department of the United States.

It says in part: (sic)"There are hundreds of independent vernacular and English language newspapers available, representing various political points of view. The government owns "Gorkhapatra", the second-largest circulating Nepali daily and "The Rising Nepal"', the second largest English daily. Editors and writers at the government newspapers practice self-censorship and "generally reflect government policy". Ruling political parties have influenced the editorial policy of the government newspapers to their advantage".

Perhaps this explains so many things.

All these perhaps prompted Mr. Robert Kerr-the Director at the American Information Center to tell a select group of Nepali mediamen in Jhapa recently that government controlled media institutions in Nepal lacked "freedom".

The American officials' statement apparently came as a windfall for the Space-Time Networks, which in the recent weeks has become the target of the government. The newspaper affiliated with this network appreciated the revelations made by the US dignitary and scathingly criticized the government through its editorial column. It was a tit for tat arrangement. The wearer knows where the shoe pinches!

Be that it may, the fact is that Robert made a statement based on facts. The fact is that the government-controlled media are in a very bad shape. The media men there have to attend to the telephonic dictates of their ministers or for that matter the secretaries insofar as the news cast of the opposition parties' were concerned. These poor officials obey the dictates for fear of losing the jobs. Here again the fact is that these mediamen understand the dirty politics of the men in the government but yet for understandable reasons can't openly go against the ministerial dictates. Government's structured policy has been that minimize the coverage of the men belonging to the opposition or else face consequences.. Robert's expression might have consoled the journalists working in the government controlled media institutions. They might possess a strong desire to thank the US official but for so many reasons they can't do that. Who knows which of his or her own colleague will play a villain and bring about a catastrophe in his or her career? After all, informers and ministerial stooges are every where in Nepal, Isn't it?

Without thinking of left and right, we appreciate Robert's statement and wish that some other powerful officials from other diplomatic missions as well took up the same matter in a more dynamic way that forces the government, if any, to allow freedom in the institutions controlled by it.

Standard global practice has been that a democratic order must not have media under its control.

Columbus discovered America. Now the Americans apparently were in a mood to discover the nitty-gritty's of Nepali democracy and that too being in Nepal. Ambassador Frank saw lack of good governance in Nepal. Robert sees no freedom in the government media. Keep it up. We the media men will benefit ultimately.

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