The recent bomb attacks in Afghanistan were unfortunate as they killed many people including journalists. US President Donald Trump’s call for combating terrorism and purge of “foot soldiers of evil” is a welcome step.

Such measured speech by the American president has sent some positive vibes across the world. In this fashion, his message to the Muslim world in the Middle East with respect to the renewed fight against extremism must be seen clearly through the prism of vision. Sometimes, criticism cannot be taken lightly.

The mere criticism will never bring any kind of good turn. Even The New York Times has somewhat negatively commented on Trump’s address. There is a need to understand the underlying message of the speech. Especially media people have the designated role to play in order to highlight the correct things from the excerpts of big leaders like Trump.

A word of advice will turn out to be useful for the countries in distress.  So far terrorism and terror attacks have taken a heavy toll on the people the world over, both economically and generally.

The fact is that the big cities like Hyderabad, New York and Islamabad have come under terror attacks on various occasions. In this context, stringent efforts are necessary to keep vigil over the possible untoward situations in metropolitan cities.

Last but not least, strong strategies and mutual cooperation are required on the part of the countries the world over in order to fight the evil of terror menace.

P Senthil Saravana Durai, Mumbai

Press freedom

After the CPN-Maoist came to the peace process in 2006 Nepal has been relatively enjoying more press freedom compared to other countries in South Asia. However, the government needs to do more to ensure free flow of information to the public without interruption from the state or non-state parties.

On the eve of the World Press Freedom, Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) said that at least 62 cases of press freedom violation were recorded across the country since May 4 last year. The FNJ said that press freedom violation has decreased by 11 per cent. This is a good sign that Nepal has made improvement when it comes to enjoying the freedom of press. Last year the FNJ had recorded 73 cases of press freedom violations.

According to a 2017 report published by Reporters Without Borders (RWB), Nepal was ranked 106th with a score 33.02 among 180 countries surveyed. The RWB said that many journalists were threatened, thrashed or intimidated during the local, provincial and general elections last year.

Many journalists, according to the report, were arrested without a warrant letter and some were also tortured in detention. What I would like to say is that the media freedom is not for the mediapersons, but for the general people who get to know about what is happening in the country from the press people. Safeguarding the media freedom is safeguarding democracy, human rights and controlling corruption.

Shyam Adhikari, Banepa