• MEDIA COUNCIL BILL
Government says bill is necessary to ensure that no one is victimised by the press
KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 3
Chair of the Federation of Nepali Journalists Bipul Pokhrel has said that the House of Representatives, which has started debating the media council bill must remove provisions that could curtail press freedom and limit the press regulatory body's autonomy.
The HoR has started theoretical debate on the media council bill, which has already been passed by the National Assembly.
Pokhrel said that the National Assembly removed some of the restrictive provisions from the bill that had proposed to give power to the media council to impose fines on violators of the code of conduct and order compensation for the victims.
The NA has incorporated provisions in the bill whereby courts will have the authority to impose fines and compensation on media outlets found to have undermined the prestige of somebody and caused businesspersons losses in their businesses. "But there are still some restrictive provisions the HoR should remove from the bill. For instance, the provision that allows the government to issue directives to the council is inconsistent with the autonomy of the council, and hence this provision should be dropped," he added.
According to Pokhrel, the HoR should also remove the provision that mandates journalists to obtain licence to practise journalism. He said the bill's provision for appointment of office bearers of the media council through a government appointed recommendation committee was not appropriate as government bureaucrats would have the upper hand in recommending office bearers. He said the government should make appointments in the media council transparent, and while doing so, ensure that seven journalists also represent the regulatory body from seven provinces in a manner that ensures inclusion.
The bill adopted by the NA states that the government could issue directives to the media council to enforce professional norms in accordance with the mass media policy and the council should implement those directives according due priority to them.
Pokhrel said that if the HoR passed the bill with restrictive provisions that curtailed press freedom and undermined the regulatory body's autonomy, the FNJ would not accept the bill, instead it would launch an agitation.
Responding to lawmakers' remarks on the bill in the HoR yesterday, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the government felt the need to bring a new media council bill to better manage media outlets. The bill states that the media council shall enforce separate code of conduct for print and other media outlets. He said enactment of the bill would promote responsible journalism and self-regulation, and it would help create an environment where no one would be victimised by the press.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 4, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
