Why Kantipur Publication Rejected Advertisement of Rakta Kunda of Worth Rs. 62,000.00?

By Harsha Man Maharjan

Rakta Kunda is a novel which depicts Nepalese Royal family in negative way. Many people can’t say whether the fact it presented is accurate or not.

Khagendra Bhattarai, owner of Pairavi Book is sole distributor of the book. He informed me that the book has been published in 50,000 nos. It is Khagendra dai who informed me on 11 Magh 2063(25 Jan 2007) that he was publishing a color advertisement of the book in the front page of next day’s Kantipur. He requested me to read the ad. He was publishing the ad of Rs. 62,000.00 through Spectrum Advertising and Media consultant. Next day the ad did not appear in the newspaper. I thought some thing might have happened.

When I met Khagendra dai after few months I asked about the ad. I could not believe what he told me. On 11 Magh he was sure of the ad till 9 pm. At 9 pm Marketing Department of Kantipur Publication informed Bhattaria and ad agency that management had decided not to run the ad. Bhattari still has the returned cheque.

What is the reason behind this? Did the publication see the threat of law suit from royal family? Actually the royal family even condemned the book publicly. Now question arises. Is publication responsible for each and every ad it publishes? I think advertisers are legally responsible for ads.

I know management can stop some materials from publishing if it thinks that they are harmful for the publication. But Rakta Kunda’s case is different. I know there are few community FM radio stations which have guidelines for choosing ads. I have never heard this kind of incident before. Isn’t this interference of management in the business of publication?
Before this, even in the case of a business man Rasendra Bhattarai, I think there was pressure from management to provide unnecessary publicity to the business man. Former editor of Kantipur, Yuba Raj Ghimire tendered his resignation due to this behaviour of management. He even wrote an article on this issue in magazine, Samaya.

Source of photo: http://www.monikaa.uni.cc/forum/index.php?topic=16.msg58