Kathmandu, March 16:

Senior journalists today condemned the government for abusing the taxpayers’ money by distributing government advertisements only to selected newspapers, which are loyal to the King’s direct ruling.

Gopal Thapaliya, the chairman of the SAFMA Nepal, said the government’s one-window policy was introduced only to promote journalists who do not believe in the principles of free media. “We are not ready to praise the King, who has snatched people’s sovereignty and imposed autocracy,” he said.

Rajendra Dahal, the editor of the Himal magazine, said the one-window policy was only a ‘packet of deviations,’ which will try to deviate journalists from doing their duty to take undue advantage from the government by praising the system and closing their eyes to its wrongdoing.

“If the one-window policy stands for clear merit basis, why cannot my newsmagazine fall into that category?” he asked. He also said that a government can give financial assistance to anybody but distributing taxpayers’ money to favour a person or a newspaper is a crime and corruption.

Pratik Pradhan, the editor of The Kathmandu Post, said the state should make clear policy on how much the press should be supported and on which basis.

“The press should also make clear vision and we should not seek government support or subsidy rather we should learn to be independent,” he said.

Manohari Thapa, a NTV-reporter and a member of the One-Door Advertisement Committee, said the policy was introduced to make distribution of government advertisements to all newspapers and support them in that way. “But the newspapers have to be loyal to the country, nationality and the monarch to take advantage of the one-window policy.” He claimed that 86 newspapers have been benefited by the policy. Thapa claimed that there is a representative of Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) in the Committee as well.

But, FNJ general-secretary Mahendra Bista said that there is no representative from the FNJ in the government’s committee.

Kishor Shrestha, the editor of the Jana Ashta weekly, said even though the tendency of providing monetary support to newspapers for whatever reason is an old tactic of governments to win the journalists’ pens, the present government is using the taxpayer’s money against the benefit of the majority of the population.

He revealed that the then chief of army staff Prajwal Shamsher Rana had sent him Rs 50,000 to buy his pen but he refused to take it.