Paternalistic Attitude Still in Nepal Cinema Censor Board

By Harsha Man Maharjan

According to an amendment in  Motion Picture (Production, Exhibition and Distribution) Rules, 2057 (2000 A.D.) in 2010,  Nepal Film Censor Board has to rate movies in four categories Universal (U), Parental Guide (PG), Special (S) and Adult (A), but the board is still scissoring scenes and showing paternalistic attitude to film makers. This is evident from the list of ratings this board gave to movies both Nepali and foreign during few months (15 june-6 September 2012).

This is the first time that the Ministry of Information and Communication has made public such kind of information. This is good for public and the board. I think it makes decisions of the board transparent. And this is good symptom for future.

But it has helped us to judge the rating system. The list contains ratings of 45 movies and informs about the cuts in movies. These ratings show that the board has shown concern on ‘vulgarity’. Two examples are interesting. The board has cut a kissing sing in a song in Indian movie Raaz-3. Yet the board has rated it ‘A’. Similarly the board has muted some words like ‘randi’ or whore and ‘saman’ (thing) and bed scene was shorten in Nepali movie Bindas which was criticized in Nepali media for its nudity. Yet the movie got adult certificate. 

 

It is interesting that the issue the board cares a lot is sex in cinema. But the board members are forgetting that Nepali society is gradually becoming open in case of sexual issues. There are semi pornographic weeklies pandering racy contents. The Internet, where pornographic content is a click way, is penetrating in our life.

 Links of the ministry and cinema rule

http://www.moic.gov.np/film-censor.php http://www.film.gov.np/rules%20&%20act/film_rules_2057_nepali_4th_amendment_2066.pdf

Photo sources:

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipeyM3dvE9ZuSgObVbhJj8iAfvfM5hKs98iKbujRY4_gUHt16xgVl3VJuK5CyE_7_3X2jxlXvAdvZMyyxKYPiHy_v_vFMaII0_VoY_X6dPzvRlo7HqEBJSefASO3Z8RWd0bN43GA/s400/BindaasSexySushmaKarki.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/95/Raaz_3d_movie_poster.jpg/220px-Raaz_3d_movie_poster.jpg

Need of Social Media Guidelines in Nepali Media

By Harsha Man Maharjan

 Do Nepali media need social media guidelines ? This became a topic in an interaction program organized by Martin Chautari on 13 September 2012 about ‘How are Nepali Journalists Using Social Media ?’ According to Tilak Pathak journalist and member of Centre for Media Research-Nepal and pundit of this program, “Nepali media have started to feel a need of these guidelines but none has created one”.

 This problem arises when a journalist who is employed in media break news from his/her blog or facebook or twitter. Pathak informed that there is no incident where a journalist has been taken action for breaking news in social media. It seems to me that it is right time that Nepali media prepare their social media guideline. This would make easy for journalists.

Nepali Media in the Post Conflict Situation: Some Trends

By Harsha Man Maharjan

These days I am in London under a project between Martin Chautari and SOAS. This visit gave me an opportunity to think about the post conflict situation of Nepali media. This short article is my understanding of the situation:

Post conflict is a transitional phase where both old and new forces tried to exert their influences and it is the period where a society involves in debates, discussions on various issues. Many people believe that Nepal is going through this phase. Academicians are writing on different aspects of the post conflict situation from security to tourism. But very few articles and papers have discussed about Nepali media in Post Conflict situation.

Only article, I encountered was from the discipline of Public Administration. In 2008 a faculty from Public Administration Campus, Kathmandu had written this paper with the title, Media Situation in Post Conflict Nepal: An analysis. But this paper’s concern is narrow. It deals the post conflict situation through the angle of the safety of journalists. This is a journalistic perspective to see the Post Conflict Nepali media.

I think that we have to see the situation of Post Conflict in Nepali media beyond this perspective. One way to see this is inclusiveness of media. Nepali media are becoming more and more inclusive. It is a plus point that Government press media, Gorkhapatra started to publish specials page on different languages of ethnic groups and communities called Naya Nepal.

Second way is the mainstreaming of labour issues inside Nepali media. Only after 2006, this issue got space in Nepali media. Earlier journalists and media owners paid no attention to it.

Third is the diversity of media. In 2006, we saw the rise of Maoist media. There is growth in Maoist magazines. About 60 titles of these magazines were published in the post conflict. I think these media have helped in making Nepali media more diverse.

The fourth is some NGOs are working on media for peace building. They are preparing radio contents for this.

A Death of Copy Left ! Are You Kidding ?

By Harsha Man Maharjan

London, 18 February

One of my colleagues at Martin Chautari sent me an email yesterday to confirm about the assassination of library.nu. This is a sad news for me. I have benefited a
lot from this site for more than a year. For me, it was a big library where I could find almost all books.During research and teaching, I used many books from this website

This is not an obituary.I believe that the library.nu or gigapedia will never die and no one can kill it. That means it will definitely reincarnate in other forms. I hope that day will come soon.

Here are some of comments on facebook:
Imperial S Storm · Top Commenter
Library.nu is closed on registration. I have no control over this. Main reason is Library.nu ranked 7th in the world for usage of its type. Now they have legal maters to deal with. They are trimming back there usage by closing registration. However this has not only happening to Library.nu. Its happening all over the web. SOPA and collages are trying to shut down free software sites. SOPA never passed, But is being done under stealth. Next few months you will see less and less of the web free. Government of the United States is after file sharing host. Passing DNS blocks on many countries. The ending goal is the end of the internet as we know it. A move to a internet 2 type system ran by governments of the world. Once there is more using internet 2 and all major search providers switch.(Google, Bing, Aol, Yahoo, Facebook and twi...See More
Reply · 85 · Like · Follow Post · January 16 at 10:49pm

Christine Por
sad to see this happens...... People abuse and we suffer.
Reply · 6 · Like · January 23 at 3:48pm

Shafiullah Khan · University of Karachi
plx sir open registration
Reply · 2 · Like · February 4 at 2:36am

Mao Shunjie · Lancaster University
too late to know this website.....
Reply · 1 · Like · February 5 at 2:11pm
View 15 more

Veena Yadav · University of Delhi
how I can register in library.nu.
Reply · 17 · Like · Follow Post · January 10 at 11:00pm

Nikhilesh Chitre · Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
sadly,you can't. its closed now. you can try other websites,but none is as good as library.nu.Feeling very sad that the site is closed.:-(
Reply · 3 · Like · February 8 at 9:38pm

Keni Lynch
Nikhilesh Chitre wow, this sucks... I wish SOPA will get every Free Speech law thrown at them.. we should all protest. where would we be without free open sourced information.. some off-line libraries actually charge large fees now.. so all of us will be poor and uneducated.. well, won't this come to a 'revolution' in the end? I mean it's just obvious. This is how the French Revolution started. There was a bunch of rich folk who never paid their bills (hence, no money for the craftsmen and women, and laborers to fend for themselves or their families, forget about an education.. in the end, the rich got their heads chopped off, didn't they... and all because they wouldn't allow the access that people depended on..(i.e. money) for food, clothing, education.. it seems our new government officials are rolling back the clock, steadily returning to a rehashed model of the aristocratic past..alas, if they only studied history, they would know their laws won't last last the time it takes to write them down..
Reply · 7 · Like · February 9 at 12:14am

http://sopastrike.com/

for freedom of speech and information
January 18th is going to be amazing. Sites are striking in all different ways, but they are united by this: do the biggest thing you possibly can, and drive contacts to Congress. Put this on your site or automate it by putting this JS into your header, which will start the blackout at 8AM EST and end at 8PM EST.