Nepal Monitor: The National Online Journal

The following material on Nepal is from the seventh annual report on press freedom in South Asia (Under Fire: Press Freedom in South Asia 2008-2009, see pages 26-31):

Three years after the mass upsurge of 2006 toppled monarchical absolutism and initiated Nepal’s transition to democracy, the country continues to function under an interim constitution that guarantees the right to free speech. Yet media rights remain weakly institutionalised and public attitudes toward the media are problematic. The first steps of the transition are now complete. A Constituent Assembly (CA) is in place to lay the foundations of a new republican order, and an elected government is in authority. But the relative calm as the transition began has given way to a spirit of contention. Media rights have been a casualty, with attacks on the media increasing in various forms since the CA elections in April 2008 and the subsequent swearing in of a coalition government headed by the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), or UCPN(M).

In January 2009, a young woman journalist, Uma Singh, was murdered in the most traumatic manifestation of the new turbulence in Nepal’s media environment. Uma Singh was a broadcast and print journalist working in Janakpur, Dhanusha district, in the southern plains (the Terai). Late on January 11, her modest rented room was raided by a group of perhaps 15 men. She was dragged out onto the veranda and brutally hacked.

This was not the only murder of a journalist in the past year. The remains of J.P. Joshi, alias “Pandit”, reported missing from his home since October 8, were found in a forest in the far-western district of Kailali and identified by his family almost two months later.

Joshi was the editor of the far-western editions of the Nepali language daily Janadisha. He was a member of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and also president of the Kailali district chapter of the Revolutionary Journalists’ Organisation, a body closely allied with the ruling Maoists.

Much of the legacy of Nepal’s decade-long civil war, which formally ended with the November 2006 ceasefire agreement between the Maoist insurgents and the interim government formed after the popular upsurge earlier that year, still remains to be dealt with.

This was highlighted by the identification on June 25 of the body of Dekendra Raj Thapa, which was exhumed in the far-western town of Dailekh. The exhumation took place on the basis of information gathered by the FNJ, in the presence of officials of the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal.

Thapa, a Dailekh-based reporter for Radio Nepal, disappeared while on assignment in June 2004. The FNJ has established through its own investigations that Thapa may have died under torture on August 10, 2004. Krishna Bahadur Mahara, then spokesman for the Maoist insurgency, had publicly expressed remorse over Thapa’s killing. In a tacit admission of responsibility, he called the murder a violation of his party’s central policy directives. Now Minister for Information and Communications, Mahara has been a consistent voice in support of media freedom. He also has the
authority, seemingly, to ensure the full disclosure of the truth behind the murder of Thapa, as part of Nepal’s process of reconciliation and the institutionalization of media rights.

Political pressures undermine freedom
There is a new pattern of violence in Nepal related to the grievances of minorities and marginalised groups. While editors are still pressured through discriminatory allocation of advertising revenues, and media proprietors often come under pressure to dismiss some journalists because of their political allegiance or ethnicity, anger among the wider public is increasingly directed against journalists and media outlets for their coverage (or lack of it) of events and issues related to the political transition and minority interests.

In 2008, newspapers in some districts were forced to close temporarily because of violence arising from frustration among some groups about information they were transmitting in their news reports. It seems that the veracity of the information was not so much the issue as what the newspapers said about group interests.

Though much of the anger and mistrust that targets the media is recognised as misdirected and misinformed, it is also the case that a good deal of media output is aligned with political interests and inattentive to the needs, views and sensitivities of all groups.

Political partisanship seems to have spread through Nepal’s media, resulting in heavy-handed tactics by some Maoist-aligned house unions which undermine prospects for reconciliation and the efforts of national journalists’ organisations to negotiate improved working conditions on behalf of the entire media workforce. Several bitter disputes during the year highlight the difficulties. At the Himalmedia group, which publishes the Nepali language fortnightly magazine Himal Khabar Patrika (HKP) and the English language weekly Nepali Times, violence erupted as a newly registered union opposed cost-cutting measures. The car of Himalmedia’s chief executive was attacked in October. In an attack that seemed motivated by content issues rather than the labour dispute, copies of HKP were seized and set alight in November as they were being prepared for distribution in the media group’s premises.

On December 21, cadre of the youth wing of the UCPN(M), the Young Communist League, raided the Himalmedia office, inflicting considerable damage to property and injuring several staffers. The violence was provoked by the content of HKP over the preceding months, but with the labour dispute also simmering at the time, these lines became blurred. Early in 2008, the Himalmedia directors made the decision to close the company’s subscriptions department, with voluntary retirement offered to 18 personnel. The decision followed an assessment of the group’s cumulative losses in the previous eight years. By 2009, the losses amounted to NPR 95 million (about USD 1 million). Of the 18 employees, 11 accepted retirement on terms including one month’s salary for each year of service. Others held out for better terms, though negotiations soon broke down.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was quick to condemn the attack on Himalmedia and to reject any possibility that the Maoist party that he heads could have been involved. He branded the perpetrators as “immoral agents” who had “infiltrated” his party with the intent to discredit it. However, the continuing good standing within the UCPN(M) hierarchy of the two individuals who were arrested and then released on bail tended to undermine the Prime Minister’s claims.

After the attack on their premises, the Himalmedia management registered a police complaint on December 25, naming Ramesh K.C. and Ramesh Babu Pant, both senior functionaries in the Maoist union hierarchy, as leaders of the violence. The UCPN(M) leadership ordered both individuals to surrender to the police, and they were detained for two days before being released on bail to a rapturous reception by Maoist cadre in Kathmandu.

Shortly afterwards, the head of the Maoist-led All Nepal Federation of Trade Unions (ANFTU), with which the house union was aligned, visited Himalmedia to negotiate a settlement. Agreement was reached when the Himalmedia management offered an enhanced severance package for the seven personnel who had not accepted the earlier offer.

From a month’s pay, the package was raised to twoand-a-half months’ pay for every year worked. The incidents at Himalmedia attracted attention across Nepal and beyond. But these were part of a series of events that had a more profound impact on the functioning of Nepal’s media, involving two of the country’s largest print media groups – Kantipur and the Asia-Pacific Communications Associates, Nepal (APCA Nepal).

Kantipur publishes two dailies – Kathmandu Post in English and Kantipur in Nepali – from Kathmandu and Biratnagar, the largest town in the Terai. In late- December, its operations in Biratnagar were paralysed for five days by Maoist unions pressing demands for improved wages and working conditions. The Nepal Press Union, which is a recognised representative of the Kantipur workforce, distanced itself from the actions. The management claimed that most of the demands had been met and that it was being subjected to a blockade. As Maoist cadre prevented media workers from reporting for work in Biratnagar, it was not evident that those leading the agitation had the endorsement of any section of the workforce.

At the same time, activists of the All Nepal Communication, Printing and Publication Workers’ Union – also part of the ANFTU – put up their flags in the office of APCA Nepal at Anamnagar in Kathmandu.

While there may be debate about the status of some of the new house unions, of more concern are their political motivations and the quick resort to violence. The Himalmedia management argues that the house union was unlawfully registered. This is hotly disputed by the leadership of the union, which claims that it went through all prescribed procedures for registration and only called in the support of the Maoist-affiliated ANFTU when it found that the barriers to its recognition were insurmountable. In Nepal’s volatile environment, it is worrying to see politicallypatronised groups opt for old methods of grievance redressal through violent confrontation rather than seeking to negotiate collectively on behalf of all workers.

From December 22, the FNJ and other press freedom bodies began a series of protests all over Nepal, to raise public awareness about the perilous state of media freedom. One such demonstration near the national parliament in Kathmandu was attacked by the police, and FNJ Secretary Ramji Dahal seriously injured.

In a move to highlight the magnitude of the threat to press freedom from elements apparently enjoying official patronage, the Media Society and the Editors' Alliance in Nepal decided to publish all newspapers on December 23 with blank editorial spaces. Radio stations and television channels similarly aired a special message of protest in place of news headlines, immediately after the signature tunes announcing their news bulletins.

On December 28, the FNJ and the Government, represented by Information Minister Mahara, signed a 10-point agreement on measures to be taken to protect press freedom. The Government promised to make a strong affirmation of its commitment to press freedom and the security of journalists and media houses. The Ministry of Information and Communications, it was agreed, would set up a special bureau to deal with incidents of press freedom violations, which would monitor complaints and action taken by the authorities. Legal action would be initiated against the most gross violations in recent times. And the Government would put resources toward settling ongoing industrial disputes in various media houses.

Following the agreement, the action at Kantipur’s Biratnagar premises was lifted and the group newspapers resumed publication. But the union kept up its pressures on APCA-Nepal, hoisting its flags on the building the day after the agreement was signed. In mid-January, the union blockaded the media group’s advertising offices for three days, depriving it of a vital stream of revenue.

The current state of politics in Nepal often induces a degree of equivocation from those holding high office. At a public meeting soon after the series of attacks on Himalmedia by Maoist cadre, Prime Minister Dahal questioned why there was such a furore over incidents in which no one had been seriously injured or killed. He reportedly drew an adverse comparison with the supposed silence that followed the murder of J.P. Joshi.

Most observers thought the comparison unfair, since the FNJ and all other press freedom bodies had, with little regard for Joshi’s political affiliations, taken up his killing as an issue of vital concern for all journalists. Indeed, the Maoists themselves have not been able to convincingly dispel the aura of suspicion that Joshi may have been killed as a consequence of a falling out within their ranks. Prime Minister Dahal’s statement seemed unmindful about the need to convey positive reassurances on press freedom, irrespective of the political stripe of the media organisation or journalist concerned.

Before taking office, as leader of the largest party in the Constituent Assembly, Dahal had held out a public warning to the Kantipur group that it would risk serious consequences if it continued criticising the party. The implication was that a party that had won a convincing electoral victory was effectively immune to public criticism. The belief that electoral legitimacy involves exemption from media scrutiny seems, fortunately, to be giving way to a more reasoned acceptance of the role of a free media in a democratic order.

In early February, the Government decided to suspend the investigation into the possible murder of Prakash Singh Thakuri, a journalist missing since July 2007 and believed to have been abducted and killed by Maoist cadre. Seven suspects had been booked for the alleged murder. But according to a letter given to Thakuri’s wife on February 3, the Cabinet had decided on October 27 to drop all charges in the case. Other investigations into the murder of journalists continue to flounder, including the cases of Pushkar Bahadur Shreshta and Birendra Sah.

An armed group in the Terai, the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (Jwala Singh), has taken responsibility for the killing of Shreshta in January 2008. And Maoist cadre are suspected to have been behind Sah’s murder in October 2007. Public attitudes change slowly. In the transitional politics of Nepal, the Government is yet to assume the post-partisan attitude that alone can ensure credible leadership in the cause of the right to free speech.

Public pressure though remains an agent of potentially far-reaching change. And the campaigns and advocacy efforts undertaken by Nepal’s media community retain great scope for effecting a shift in public attitudes. The outbreak of serious discord in the plains over issues of indigenous peoples’ rights against those of the settlers from the hills (the Madhesi versus Pahari tension) has taken its toll of media freedom. A senior and highly respected journalist, Ramesh Ghimire, who has been active in Janakpur for 48 years, faced constant threats through the year from activists of the various Madhesi groups that have sprouted in the region since the Maoist insurgency ended.

Ghimire, who is the editor and publisher of the Dhanusha weekly, has received numerous anonymous telephone calls, questioning the continuing existence of a Nepali language publication in a region where the majority speak other languages. All through his professional life, Ghimire is on record saying he has never had reason to believe that the people of Janakpur resented a Nepali language newspaper being published in their town. Faced with rising threats and harassment, Ghimire’s family has chosen voluntary exile in a nearby town, though he continues to live in Janakpur and to bring out his newspaper.

Still battling for job security
Journalists’ working conditions continue to be a serious concern. Significant amendments were made to the Working Journalists’ Act (WJA) in August 2007, to provide for a minimal degree of job security.

This begins with the basic requirement that all media staff be issued letters of appointment and be assured of secure tenures. A ceiling of 15 percent of total staff is specified for the number of employees that a media institution can retain on contract. All media employees, including those on contract, would be entitled to a provident fund and other social security measures, such as health insurance. One percent of total revenues is to be set aside by media organizations for capacity building and skills development.

A government committee set up in September 2007 made its recommendations on basic minimum wages for media workers in August 2008. These were fixed at NPR 5200 (about USD 64) a month for journalists and NPR 4600 (USD 57) for other media staff. In February 2009, the Government decided to implement minimum wages as recommended, effective from April 13.

The WJA specifies that particular functions and positions within the media will be compensated at appropriate rates. The aim is to achieve a high degree of compliance by July 2009 at least among the larger media companies. This category includes all government media, television companies, radios with networking arrangements and companies running more than one station, and all A-category national dailies and magazines (classified as such in accordance with their revenue).

Implementing the WJA for other categories of media, such as the small and medium newspapers and the FM broadcast stations that have sprouted all over Nepal, will be the real challenge. These are typically, small operations dependent on highly localized advertising. Again, most media organisations in Nepal are family-owned enterprises which enjoy certain exemptions from financial disclosure laws.

These enterprises would need the assurance of a fair advertising policy, especially by Nepali entities using public funds, to achieve financial stability. But they would also, presumably, have to subject themselves to certain norms of financial transparency and accountability as the new democratic order in Nepal takes shape.

Read the full report here

* IFJ press release on the report.

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