(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the latest government drive to strangle the independent local and national press, as it unveiled a new policy limiting public bodies to buying advertising space in media that demonstrate loyalty to “the nation, nationality and the monarchy.” “The government has a duty to share its purchasing of advertising space in […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the latest government drive to strangle the independent local and national press, as it unveiled a new policy limiting public bodies to buying advertising space in media that demonstrate loyalty to “the nation, nationality and the monarchy.”
“The government has a duty to share its purchasing of advertising space in an impartial manner,” the organisation said. “In fact, it is doing the opposite by bringing in a new policy without consultation, which goes against the principles of free enterprise and freedom of expression.”
“As quickly as possible, the royal government is trying to realise its dream of driving out the independent press, which despite censorship and harassment continues to exercise its right to inform the public,” RSF added.
On 20 June 2005, Information and Communications Minister Tank Dhakal presented the broad lines of the “One Door Advertisement Policy-2062BS”, designed to match public advertising to the respect demonstrated by the media for “the nation, nationality and the monarchy.”
The policy also allows for press firms to be judged according to their “positive activism to strengthen the security forces’ morale.” It also sets out other more legitimate criteria, such as financial transparency, applications of laws on journalists’ rights and respect for journalistic ethics.
A Central Coordination Committee (CCC) was created to oversee the new policy. Its seven members come from within the government, under the chairmanship of the information and communications minister. The creation of the CCC cuts back to a minimum the role of the Press Council, seen by the authorities as too independent.
Allocation of government advertising at the local level will also be controlled by each state representative under the Information Department in Kathmandu. “It will mark the death of local private weeklies,” said one journalist in the capital who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The administrative clumsiness of the system and the lack of impartiality of government representatives in the provinces will squeeze the advertising revenue of these publications.”
State bodies will have to submit requests for buying advertising space a month in advance in the capital and in remotest districts. The government daily “Gorkhapatra” is likely to be the only paper to benefit from the new policy. It should see a huge increase in revenues thanks to public advertising.
According to Raj Kumar Bhattarai, secretary general of the Advertising Agents’ Association of Nepal (AAAN), 30 percent of press revenues come from public advertising. The government spends around 250 million rupees (approx. US$3.5 million; 3 million euros) a year.
Pushkarlal Shrestha, chairman of the Kamana Publications Press Group, said public advertising represents half its sales of advertising space in his publication.
