Kathmandu, October 19:

Radheshyam Adhikari, chairman of the High-level Media Recommendation Commission today said that the recommendations to the government recently were a white-sheet document to voice press freedom.

“The whole document was backed by the philosophy that right to information of the entire population should be guaranteed,” he said, addressing an interaction programme at the Martin Chautari.

He said that in the present situation, it is not possible to bar foreign investment in media when foreign ideas are easily flowing in the country through the Internet, blogs, satellite TV, as well as print. “Thus we made a policy of welcoming it in media, on the condition that it should not exceed over 49 per cent of the total investment and the editorial team must be Nepali,” he said.

He also said that since the working journalists are deprived of basic facilities in most of the publication houses and at the same time, many publishers are not in the position to meet all the standards of industries, the commission preferred to follow the middle path.

Shibha Gaule, vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, said that the recommendations have provided the media activists a concrete document for discussion.