mediaharsha

By Harsha Man Maharjan On 11 June 2007, I was surprised to see Nepali daily Kantipur in eight pages only. Its sisterly paper The Kathmandu Post, was in black & white. The kantipur publication shrouded a big incident in the publication in the name of technical problem. Next both newspapers had news on their management letting All Nepal Communication, Press and Publications Workers' Association (ANCPPWA) to open its unit in the publication. Actually slim Kantipur and B/W The Kathmandu Post are the result of ANCPPWA's pressure to let them open it's unit in the publication. Now similar issue has cropped on in the Kamana Prakashan. This prakashan out sources Customers Solution Pvt Limited to hawk its publications. Now these hawkers affialiated to ANCPPWA wants to open a unit in the Kamana Prakashan. Pushkar Lal of the Kamana Prakashan denied their rights and closed the publication for few days. He blames the agitating hawkers for doing politics in the Prakashan and diluting ...

By Harsha Man Maharjan My friends at college today were discussing about the return of Sushil Kharel. He left Masters class of Journalism and mass communication to work in Nepal 1 tv channel. I search for this issue in google. I came upon a blog: Solidarity with Nepal1 fight: It has two postings: 1. Nalini's Torture Forced Eight Journalists Displaced from Delhi 2. Get Up Stand Up ...Stand Up for your Right About the blog, it says this: "This blog has been created to express solidarity with all the Nepal One staffs who have dared to stand up and fight against the tyrrany and atrocities of Nepal One management...the struggle initiated by the nepal one staffs was exemplerary and a milestone in protecting the fundamental rights of television journalists ...Kudos to all the Nepal one staffs..." According to the blog, Nepal 1 forced eights jopurnalists: Rajendra khanal, Chiranjivi Devkota, Divyajoyti Misra, Pradip Giri, Sushil Kharel, Lily Bhaidya, Madhu Bhattarai and Aarati KC...

By Harsha Man Maharjan I was amazed to a book name Arresting God in Nepal in the yesterday's news in Kantipur Television. It was the second time. It named this way in previous news few days before too. Actually the name of the book is Arresting God in Kathmandu. How did those mistakes take place? The news even informed that 11th Book fair lasted for 10 days. It is 8 days only.

By Harsha Man Maharjan At last on 5 June 2007 Minister of Communication and Information, Krishna Bahadur Mahara has has done two political appointments: Om Sharma as executive chairman of the Gorkhapatra Corporation and Rishi Raj Baral as chairman of the Nepal Television Corporation. It shows that the CPN (Maoist) want to toe the line of other political parties. Even in past political parties misused government owned media when they were in power and demanded for autonomy when they were in opposition. I can only hope that Mohara will not regret for what he did today when he will be in opposition. It would have been better if chairpersons are from the same corporations who know all activities of the corporation. We should not forget the appointment in NTV of writer Benju Sharma. Many staffs in NTV experienced hardship in dealing with her.

By Harsha Man Maharjan We have a phrase: stale as yesterday's news. It seems that Gorkhaptra, government owned Nepali newspaper does not know this. On June 3, 2007 it has published news with the headline 'Kukur Biralo' in Market on second page. Kukur Biralo is an audio cassette produced by Subash Regmi. The news only has information on the producer and singers. It has no extra information . Actually this is the cassette singer Badri Pangeni and his colleagues are lobbying with government to ban. They think it demean the folk singers. But news says nothing about this. The news appears to be a public relations materials. How could journalist who did that news forget this kind of important aspects? This incident helps to know the process of news making. Generally there must be personal contacts to get coverage in media. It definitely shows laziness of some reporters in Gorkhapatra.

By Harsha Man Maharjan I usually contact Dhurba Hari Adhikary, journalist to know more about some media issues. He is a member in the task force to restructure government media. This task force has not presented its report. I call him to know about the present state of the task force. He requested me to call Kiran Shrestha of Ministry of Information and communications. Earlier Raghu Mainali told me that the task force is not working and government is not in position to stop meddling in these media. Few weeks before Kantipur daily made a news related to new recruitment of the CPN (Maoist) supporting journalists in Radio Nepal and TV. Tej Prakash Pandit of Gorkhpatra Corporation has stopped visiting Gorkhaptra and there is information that the CPN (Maoist) has proposed Rishiraj Baral in place of Benju Sharma in NTV. But Kiran Shrestha informed that they are preparing draft of the report. Hope this time, government will pave a way to make these media really autonomous.

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 returne...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Have you notice an advertisement about the eleventh Nepal Education & Book Fair 2007 in Kantipur daily? This is a regular program of Global Exposition & Management Services (P) Ltd. (GEMS) is organizing this event. Last year it published advertorials many days before the event. This year it is not doing this. Santosh Chhetri of GEMS told me that last year book shops about which he could not provide advertorials were not happy with him. Ruskin Bond, writer is inaugurating the event. The book exhibition will begin from 1-9 June 2007. Pls visit my last year's posting on the book fair. http://mediaharsha.blogspot.com/2006/06/why-less-media-coverage-of-nepal.html More on Ruskin Bond: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruskin_Bond

Below are old questions Shubraj Shilpakar provided me. Tribhuvan University 2060 Master Level/II Year/ Humanities Full Marks: 100 Nepalese Media System and Journalism (JMC. 515) Group "A" (Long- answer Questions 1. Describe the national and international conditions in which print , audio and audio–visual media have emerged in Nepal. 2. What are the objectives of National Communication Policy, 2049 B.S. ? Why policy interventions does it make achieve these objectives? 3. Give a brief account of media regulation system in Nepal. How do you evaluate the implementation aspects of Nepalese media regulations? 4. "Nepal has made big achievements in community radio broadcasting." Do you agree? Group "B" 5. How do production houses and broadcasting stations differ from each other? 6. What are the different kinds of broadcasting services functioning in Nepal? 7. What is the role of private sector in the development of films in Nepal? 8. Explain the present status ...

By Harsha Man Maharjan I believe that people who have not studied journalism from Proficiency Level have rights to study Journalism and Mass Communication in Masters Level. This is happening in two colleges in Nepal: Kantipur City College and College of Mass Communication and Journalism. It is not happening in R R College. I think specialists need to think over Nepali journalism and mass communication. Here I am giving an example of Working Journalists Act 2051 v.s.(1995) Ramesh Badal is a lawyer having specialization in Labour issues. His interpretation of the genesis of Working Journalist Act of Nepal was new to me. I studied the act minutely many times but I could not discern the issues as he did. He was speaking in a media discussion series organized by Martin Chautari on 24 May 2007. Its topic was Issues Related to Working Journalists in Electronic Media. He thinks it was a blunder of Nepali journalism sector to deny to entertain Labour Act in 1990s. At that time in Nepal trade u...

Harsha Man Maharjan There is a rumor going on in the town these days about the Gorkhapatra Sasthan(G.S.): It is on the verge of collapse. A friend in my college informed me that the Sasthan lacks news print, and Workers related to CPN (Maoist) are stopping Pandit from entring the Sasthan. Its director, Tej Prakash Pundit is on leave for few weeks. Former Communication Minister Dilendra Badu appointed Pundit in the post. Badu is related to Nepali Congress. Now Krishna Bahadur Mohara is Communication Minister. And he has no good relation with Pandit. Now it is time to think about the political appointment in government-owned media houses. Usually these are the big posts and they get change as soon as there is a change in the government. On the one side we are saying that government should provide independence to these media institutions. On the other side we are seeing political appointments. I have not figure about way out this. Only I know is government should not interfere in these ...

By Harsha Man Maharjan On 26 April 2007 (16 Baisakh 2064 v.s ), Kantipur, a Nepali broadsheet daily did a scoop on Rayamajhi Ayog. It has byline by Bal Krishna Basnet. He got Rayamajhi Commission’s report form a source. The government has kept this report secret after members of the commission submitted the report. On that day I praised Kantipur for the scoop. I think every Nepali has right to know what is written in the commission’s report. It is a public property. So as the government was not making it public, I think it is kantipur’s responsibility to publish the report. I hoped that kantipur will not lag behind on this matter. What I remembered on that day was Pentagon papers of America. American government kept secret Pentagon papers related to its involvement in Vietnam War Few newspapers got the papers. When they published the papers in different parts the government ordered to stop publishing the papers and the case went to court. And the court gave verdict on the favour of new...

By Harsha Man Maharjan There is a saying: winners write history. Do you believe this? I am trying to link this notion with history channel, a tv channel. It broadcasts programs related to different aspects of history. This is one of my favorite channels. Among its program I like Biography. This program even got chance to be the top ten programs in India few years ago. Its old footage attracts me. How charmingly these programs use steel photos to tell people’s stories. I can only praise the channel for this. Few weeks ago my belief in the channel shattered. On that day it presented a program on four world famous royal massacres. I forgot details of two of them. Remaining two was about the Tsar family of the USSR and the family of King Birendra. I could hardly believe what the program told about the royal massacre of Nepal. It blamed then prince Dipendra for the massacre. We all know this was the official version, only few Nepali believed. My hope at that time was to get information on g...

By Harsha Man Maharjan People blame Nepal Army for its weak public relations. This scenario is changing these days. People of Pili, Kalikot are thankful to the army for building a road. It seems that these people will never forget the army’s contribution. The road will make their life easy. There is no doubt. Here my concern is on another thing. These days my exam is going on and I am immersed in it. I had hardly time for other activities. Yet I managed time to watch a talk program of Kantipur TV, Bahas during my exam. On April 21, 2007 I was surprised to see a documentary on the bravery of the Nepal Army, I place of Bahas. I was a wee bit late and missed the beginning part. I didn’t know the reason of this. Even earlier some times other programs took Bahas’s place. The documentary was about the army’s ability to construct road. All people were praising the army’s deed. Rukmanga Kattuwal was doing the same. While watching the program, I thought that it might be the footage of Kantipur...

Friends My exam is going on. I might not post for few weeks. harsha

THe Himalayan Times' Craze for the word 'Stop Press' By Harsha Man Maharjan Being a student of Journalism and mass communication I know what the words stop press mean. THese days a English braodsheet daily, The Himalayan Times is using this words in its front page giving scores of games in World Cup Criket. Is this word to be put in the page? I don't think so. So I search in internet to know more aboutit. Here is what I found its meaning 'late news that is inserted into the newspaper at the last minute'. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stop+press. By using this word THT is trying to show that it is doing the job which is out of the dateline. Yet, million dollar question is: Is it needed to write the word there ? Many readers blame THT for focussing only on factual information. It never did investigative reporting, except the breaking news of Charles Shobraj. It never dare to challenge any side. This is a typical example of 'objective journalism.' I am ...

By Harsha Man Mahrajan Once my friend told me that business community is mainly responsible for the present mismanagement in Nepal. And media are silent on this issue. Yes it is this community which supported royal regime, and all political parties depend on them as economic source. Their money is never made transparent. So my friend liked Manoj Bhandarkar’s film Page Three for showing the negative impact of advertisers in media. On 19 March 2007 The Kathmandu Post daily published an news about hotelier Hari Shrestha being abducted and beaten by the Maoists for supporting king. On the same day Nepali day Kantipur wrote that the Maoists did this for he denied to provide donation of 20,00,000.00 Nepali rupee. The news also informed the Maoist forced him to do written commitment to provide Rs 1,00,000,00.00 and provide 10 rooms for CPN(Maoist) free of cost and not to inform about this to police. The news was placed on the first page with a photo of Shrestha with his bruised face. Both ne...

By Harsha Man Maharjan A saying goes better late than never but better never late. We are making late in establishing a broadcasting authority. Now we are in chaos. At last Information and Communication Ministry has decided to stop registering applications of new FM radio stations in Kathmandu. Nepal Samacharpatra informed this on 11 March 2007. This is good news. We still lack an authentic institution to evaluate the applications. After April revolution of 2006, the ministry opened the process of providing license. And now it has provided licenses to 177 radio stations. Can you believe 37 of them are in Kathmandu? Can they survive? It seems that ministry has to do nothing with their survival. In lack of this authority Kantipur publication has got license to air 5 more FM radios in Birgunj, Nepalgunj, Bharatpur, Pokhara and Butwal. In Nepal National Communication Policy 2049 v.s opened broadcasting sector to private sector. It did not propose the authority to manage and evaluate applic...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Is there the campaign of Media Literacy in Nepal? Do you heard about this in Nepal? Media literacy tells citizens about the socio-political and economic aspects of media products. It makes citizens aware of media construction of reality and makes them aware of both good and bad aspects of mass media. Nepali government never paid interest in this kind of campaign. Academic education of Journalism and Mass Media began in 2033 v.s. In the late years of 1980s king Mahendra was experimenting with his so-called one party democracy. No need to doubt that that time the government kept citizens from real facts by bombarding them by government propaganda. Mainstream media were in the control of the government. There was no chance of beginning media literacy in Nepal at that time. Non Government organizations were not powerful at that time. Government sector has not started this campaign even today. There is only an example from Ngo side. Asmita publication organized media...