KATHMANDU, MAY 27
The Online TV Journalists Association has called on Press Council Nepal to immediately take action against those disseminating wrong content not in consonance with the principles of journalism through YouTube.
OTJA president Jeevan Bhandari, handed over a memorandum to Press Council Nepal's Acting Chair Gopal Budhathoki today and called for action against those corrupting the medium.
The memorandum, among other things, calls for legal action against wrongdoers, as most of those disseminating video content through various media, including YouTube, were found to be doing so against the spirit of journalism.
It also called for protection of those who were disseminating good content and following the norms of journalism.
Noting that there were anomalies in the onlive TV media before this also and more such aberrations had been seen in the name of 'pranks' in recent days, OTJA, through a memorandum, drew the attention of the PCN to such wrongful practices.
OTJA said highly objectionable, indecent, immoral and inappropriate content that are against the general principles of journalism were being disseminated through YouTube.
It has urged the Press Council to initiate action against those media coming under the ambit of journalism in accordance with Media Laws and against those beyond the scope of journalism as per other relevant laws.
After receiving the memorandum, PCN acting chairman Budhathoki said the discrepancies being disseminated through YouTube had crossed the limit and now the process of taking action against such media would be intensified. According to him, PCN's first condition would be to enforce the journalism code of conduct on all media, and it would have no sympathy for those disobeying the code of ethics.
Budhathoki said that they had urged the online TV operators to registered with the Council. He added that those refusing to be registered would not be recognized by the Council. He said that the Council was ready to work together for purification and strengthening the online TV.
OTJA was registered last year with the aim of managing and minimising irregularities seen in the online TV.
The organisation's Chair Bhandari said that the first assembly of online TV operators decided to prepare a directive and code of conduct, following the existing laws for online TV operators and journalists.
A version of this article appears in the print on May 28, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
