MAN commemorates #WPFD, calls on government to stand by commitments on press freedom
The media should be accountable, not controlled
KATHMANDU/May 3: Worrying that the conflict era cases of crimes against journalists in Nepal remain unsolved, Laxman Datt Pant, Chairperson of Media Action Nepal (MAN), who also co-chairs the Media Freedom Coalition-Consultative Network (MFC-CN) has called on the government of Nepal to abide by its press freedom commitments. He also reminded that the government should logically conclude Nepal’s transitional justice in line with Nepal’s international obligations and Supreme Court’s orders and precedents.
Meanwhile, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma (Koirala) has said that the government is committed to preserving freedom of expression and will neither introduce nor enact any laws aimed at stifling press freedom. “The present government strongly believes in the freedom of the press and does not seek to restrict it,” Sharma said, “The media should be accountable, not controlled.”
Pant and Sharma made these remarks at the roundtable discussion organized by Media Action Nepal (MAN) on Tuesday in Kathmandu to commemorate the World Press Freedom Day that falls on May 3. Speaking at the event, the Minister also expressed the government’s willingness to sit and discuss media laws with the relevant stakeholders and urged everyone to come together to review the laws, both existing and in the pipeline, in line with the constitutional mandate.
The government should logically conclude Nepal’s transitional justice in line with Nepal’s international obligations and Supreme Court’s orders and precedents.
Sharma also worried that the digital age had raised safety challenges for both journalists and news sources and stressed the need to take steps to address these challenges. He also said that he would work to logically conclude Nepal’s transitional justice in line with Nepal’s international obligations and Supreme Court’s orders and precedents.
This year, the World Press Freedom Day was marked with the theme ‘Journalism under digital siege.’ Participants in Friday’s discussion, which included Engineer Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director general of the Department of Information and Broadcasting; Jhabidra Bhusal, chief officer of Press Council Nepal; Dr. Kundan Aryal, associate professor at the Central Department of Journalism at Tribhuvan University and officials from other media and digital rights organizations, also focused on the topic.
Press Council’s Bhusal shared that our laws and policies had not kept pace with the advancements in technology and reminded everyone that freedom of expression was not absolute and more needed to be done to combat misuse of new media.
Meanwhile, Hamal said that technological progress would not stop for anyone and requested media to use it positively. He also reiterated Minister Sharma’s point and said that the government was ready to work with all to strengthen press freedom.
Dr. Aryal along with experts Taranath Dahal, executive chief of Freedom Forum; Prabesh Subedi, president of Digital Media Foundation; Babita Basnet, coordinator of Nepal Internet Freedom Working Group and Santosh Sigdel, chairperson of Digital Rights Nepal, Hari Sharan Lamichhane, Cheif News Editor of teh staet onwed radio Nepal, Rajan Pokhrel, Editro of teh Himalayan Times, Kamal Dev Bhatatrai, Deputy Editor of the Annapurna Express talked about how internet had pushed traditional media into an existential crisis, caused loss of credibility and made surveillance easy. They also expressed concern about the lack of media literacy and digital literacy among the Nepali public.
Basnet and Bimala Tumkhewa, president of Sancharika Samuha, talked about the disproportionate impact digital targeting and online harassment had on women journalists and hoped the government would take initiative to coordinate with the various social media companies to curb such misogynistic attacks. However, other experts warned that this would open the door for the state to take draconian actions against freedom of speech in the name of preventing hateful remarks.
Dahal also questioned if journalism should survive in the current form. “This field emerged as a product of a certain time and context. As they have changed, shouldn’t we too?” he asked. “How do we stay relevant?”
He also stated that not everything should be “regulated” through law and advised the government to adopt a transparent, participatory and multi-stakeholder approach when drafting media policies.
MAN Chairperson Pant, who presided over the programme, said that while the press freedom situation was better in Nepal than our South Asian countries, it was still far from perfect and we needed to conform to the international instruments to which Nepal is a state party to. He also called out media organizations like the Press Council and the Federation of Nepali Journalists for going beyond their mandate and carrying out populist activities.
Furthermore, Pant questioned the organizations’ involvement in the state apparatus and asked how they could claim to be unaware about the various anti-freedom of speech laws introduced by the government while sitting in the consultative and recommendation-giving bodies