27 October 2006

Blogging by King Gyanendra or Prachanda

By Harsha Man Maharjan

This idea grabbed my attention at Martin Chautari media discussion series on 26 October 2006. James Sharrock of School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Ujjwal Achrya of United We Blog(UWB) were pundits on the topic: Nepali Blogging Around February 1 and Now, there. Sharrock’s has to present an essay at SOAS. His presentation depends on this essay. Ujjwal shared his experience of blogging.
What grabbed my attention during the program was K.P. Dhungana, a bloger’s wishes. What if king Gyanendra blog to convince Nepali people that Nepal needs constitutional Monarch ? or Prachanda does blogging to share what happened inside Baluwatar during peace talks ? The idea sounds good.
Blog is an online dairy. It transforms into journalism if it has journalistic qualities: reporting, quotes as UWB, MeroSansar etc. In Nepal blogging flourished after Feb 1, 2005. There were some blogs before Feb 1. They were personal daries containing personal matters only. February 1 incident of Coup by King Gyanendra censored mass media in Nepal. Young journalists were on search for new avenue. They found blogging as a place where they can write which was unfit in their media. That means blogging took the form of journalism or news portal. People visited blogs to find alternative news and views.
K.P thinks what UWB or MeroSansar is doing is not blogging. Blogging needs blogger’s criticism on the subject of the blog. What Pratyoush Onta thinks is what UWB or MeroSansar is doing is blogging too. So is what K.P is doing.
But K.P’s idea of blogging by King Gyanendra or Pranchanda attract by attention. If Pranchanda blogs, will he write what happened during peace talks? Will he give full detail of the inside stories of the talks? Hope is slim. He will only post that does no harm to him. We know people wants to hide that pinch them. Ditto is the case with Gyanendra. Both will hide their mistakes under the pretext of public opinion. Yes people will get chance to comment on their blogs. Will both of them ready to do so ? Let’s hope.

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