UDAYAPUR, April 3: Journalists have launched a symbolic ‘one-rupee contribution’ campaign to protest the government’s recent policy requiring that all official information and advertisements be published or broadcast only through state-owned media. The initiative was spearheaded on Friday by the Khotang unit of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ).
The protest comes in response to the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers’ recent decision mandating that all government notices and advertisements be disseminated exclusively through government media outlets. The FNJ Khotang chapter strongly opposed the move, describing it as unscientific, impractical, and detrimental to private media, which would be directly affected by the new directive.
On Friday, a team led by FNJ Khotang President Haribol Acharya submitted a formal letter of concern to the government through the Chief District Officer (CDO) of Khotang, Rekha Kandel, along with a symbolic one-rupee contribution. The letter urged the immediate reversal of the April 1 decision, which instructed federal ministries, commissions, secretariats, provincial governments, and local bodies to channel all government publications solely through state media.
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The FNJ warned that implementing such a policy could severely impact private media, which are already struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and various past movements. The federation highlighted that this could place the entire Nepalese media sector in a critical situation, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of working journalists.
The letter emphasized that if the government enforces this media-restrictive decision, private media may have no option but to shut down, further endangering the employment and sustainability of countless journalists across the country.
