Kathmadnu, May 6

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota said the new media law would regulate undisclosed and non-transparent investment in the media sector.

“In a democracy, not only the government, but the media sector also must be transparent,” he said. Speaking at an interaction held at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to mark the National Journalism Day today, Minister Baskota said editorial independence should go together with social accountability.

“Media must be accountable to the people, readers, country and the system,” he said, while arguing that the freedom to write and publish was incomplete without professional security.

The minister also stressed the need to categorise media houses based on human resources and investment replacing the current practice of categorising media as small or big.

“Enforcement of the new media law and structure will lead the media sector to a golden era this year. The advertisement law has tried to establish advertisement not as a right, but a matter of efficiency,” he added.

He also expressed his commitment to amend the proposed laws based on feedback from the concerned sector and deliberations in the Parliament.

It may be noted that the ministry has formulated five bills related to media, media council, public broadcasting service, advertisement and information technology. Of them, three bills have already been tabled in the Parliament.

Secretary at MoCIT Mahendra Man Gurung said the new law had been formulated to make the media sector transparent and pursuant to federal structure adopted by the country. As per the proposed media law, the source of investment in the media sector should be transparent, foreign investment will be stopped, one institution will not be allowed to run all three kinds of media.

The law also has the provision for a training academy and journalists welfare fund.