Nepal

International concern over the Nepal monarch's recent ordinance imposing restriction on the country's Press is rising. The latest to condemn the draconian law have been UNESCO and the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Nepal, which comprises 11 international media organisations. PRO-DEMOCRACY NEPALI PROTESTORS: They will get their elections only in 2007. UNESCO...

Many words have been traced on newspaper pages and debates exchanged at different forums about the recently announced ordinance bringing some amendments in the Communication Act. It is amazing that everyone, including many journalists who don’t belong to any newspaper or who never write, seem to be experts on the issue. In fact even a foreign government has entered into the fray! Unfortunately...

The government's loser attitude got exposed a couple of days before Dashain when it formally made the new Press Ordinance public. The Post and our sister publication Kantipur had announced as long as five months ago that the ordinance had been passed by the Cabinet. The ordinance received such scathing criticism that the apologists started defending that no draft ordinance had been passed. Even...

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Nepal's press restrictions introduced on Oct. 9 will harm the process for holding free elections, said Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization. "The new curbs on media rights contained in this ordinance would indicate that the situation is getting worse,'' Matsuura said yesterday in Paris, according to the UN's Web site...

KATHMANDU, Oct 18 - Eleven international organizations related to media have univocally criticized the newly promulgated media ordinance aimed at imposing curbs on news in Nepal. "We condemn the 'Ordinance Amending some of the Nepal Acts related to Media' promulgated on October 9," stated a joint statement issued by Media Services International on behalf of 'International Press Freedom and Freedom...

KATHMANDU, Oct 17 - Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Monday, announced that FNJ, civil society and professional organizations would jointly move the Supreme Court over what it called "black laws" aimed at curbing independent media. The umbrella forum of professional journalists of Nepal, took the decision to this effect after meeting with representatives from Nepal Bar Association (NBA)...

KATHMANDU, Oct. 17: The Ordinance to amend some provisions of the Communication Act is based on the draft act formed by a parliamentary sub-committee five years ago with the involvement of all the political parties, Federation of Nepalese Journalists and others related sectors. Speaking at a programme of the Reporter’s Club on Monday former member of the National Council Ashok Tiwari said that the...

A fresh spat has erupted between India and Nepal with a minister here taking exception to a statement issued by New Delhi on fresh media curbs in the Himalayan kingdom. Radhakrishna Mainali, the minister for sports an education who was nominated by King Gyanendra after the monarch grabbed power earlier this year, came down heavily on India's ministry of external affairs, saying it was "nakedly...

KATHMANDU, Oct 15 - Education Minister Radha Krishna Mainali on Saturday criticized the Indian government's statement against the newly introduced Press Ordinance. "Indian government should not intervene in the internal matters of Nepal," he said, while speaking at the Reporters' Club Nepal. "It should not be India's concern what the Nepal government does." He also criticized the recent visit of...

Kathmandu, Oct. 15: Some people always tend to look at the darker side of everything, and this has also happened in the newly announced ordinance to amend some provisions of the Communication Act. There is no denying that the press should be free, fair and responsible. But even those who advocate for unbridled freedom agree that accountability has been the weakest point of journalism in Nepal. It...