Kathmandu, January 8:

State Minister for Information and Communications Shrish Shamsher Rana today challenged the international community and the Nepali political leaders who had been asking the government to reciprocate ceasefire, to come up with a proper definition of ceasefire.

“What do you mean by the government’s ceasefire? Please ask the politicians and foreigners who have been asking for it,” he urged the media persons,.

He said this while addressing a felicitation programme organised by the Nepal National Federation of Journalists (NNFJ).

He said the government had not felt the need to announce ceasefire as the Maoists’ call for a reciprocal truce had not been directed at the government.

He also informed that the government was going to set up an Electronic Media

Authority, on which he refused to elaborate, saying the programme was now in its initial stage.

Rana further urged the media persons to duel it out between themselves which of the two journalist bodies between the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and NNFJ should exist.

He said this while answering a call urging the dismissal of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists after the formation of a “nationalist” body. He also accused the journalists belonging to the FNJ of being instruments of political parties.

P Kharel, the founder chairman of Nepal National Federation of Journalists, said he was one of the well-informed scholars on journalism, and nobody needed to teach him the subject.

He further stressed on the need to implement the long-dormant Working Journalists Act.

Accordingly, the advertisement policy should be amended, he added, but the changed policy should not resemble the one that existed before February 1 as it had been faulty and discriminatory.