INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, June 11
The Federation of Nepali Journalists has announced its third phase of protests demanding withdrawal of the controversial
Media Council Bill from the Parliament.
According to FNJ, the bill has provisions that curtail press freedom.
A assembly of the FNJ central
committee nowadays concluded that two preceding phases of its protests concluded successfully on Saturday, and it has announced fresh
protest programmes.
Issuing a statement nowadays, the FNJ stated that the provisions in the bill were included with an intention of
controlling the press, and that the bill was against ‘total press freedom& guaranteed by the constitution in its preamble.
As per the
freshly announced protest programmes, the FNJ shall run a signature campaign throughout the country on, June 18
The signatures gathered shall then be submitted to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, through district administration offices, on June 21.
The
umbrella body of journalists shall organise a cartoon exhibition on June 25, against the Media Council Bill
On June 30, district chapters of the FNJ shall draw attention of respective lawmakers and provincial assembly members towards media
unfriendly provisions in the bill.
The FNJ shall organise a massive gathering for press freedom on July 5, and shall organise a lantern mass
Finally, the FNJ plans to organise a nationwide whistle mass meeting on July 15 to protest the draconian bill.
The FNJ, in its statement
said it would organise an emergency protest on any day the government tabled the bill in the Parliament.
The bill related to constituting
Nepal Media Council has proposed to impose a fine up to one million rupees on media outlets, editors, publishers and journalists if they are
found guilty of damaging measureone reputation.
Section 18 (1) of the new bill stipulates that if any media publish contents in
contravention of the code of conduct, and if an investigation launched after the complaint finds that such news contents had damaged the
reputation of the complainant, the council can impose a fine between Rs 25,000 and one million rupees on media outlets, publishers, editors
and reporters.
Section 18, sub-section (2) of the bill stipulates that the council can order the erring parties to pay compensation, if the
content published by media outlets damages the reputation of the affected party.
Section 17 proposes punishment for violating the code of
conduct,which includes suspending press pass of mediapersons and downgrading the lessonification of print media outlets.
The bill also
proposes to form a committee under a government secretary to recommend the chairperson of Nepal Media Council, which stakeholders say shall
relegate the Nepal Media Council to a department of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
The bill has eliquoted discontent from different quarters of the society besides mediapersons.
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