(RSF/IFEX) – In a 2 May 2001 letter to Nepalese Minister of Information and Communication Shiva Raj Joshi, RSF expressed concern over the government’s decision not to grant authorisation to Space Time Network (STN) to broadcast its programmes via satellite. RSF asked the minister to let STN broadcast its programmes freely to foreign countries. Robert […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 2 May 2001 letter to Nepalese Minister of Information and Communication Shiva Raj Joshi, RSF expressed concern over the government’s decision not to grant authorisation to Space Time Network (STN) to broadcast its programmes via satellite. RSF asked the minister to let STN broadcast its programmes freely to foreign countries. Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, emphasised that the “government must respect the Constitution of Nepal, which guarantees press freedom.”
According to information collected by RSF, the Information and Communication Ministry has prevented the private media group STN from extending the broadcast of its programmes via the Thai Com satellite. STN, already a cable television operator and publisher of a free weekly, planned to broadcast its programmes as of 14 April following the signing of a business agreement with Thai Com managers. STN was to broadcast to fifty-two countries and to be received by Nepalese living outside the country. Two days before the launch of this operation, the ministry asked STN to provide a complete list of the equipment it has available for satellite broadcasts. Since then, the ministry has not provided the authorisation necessary to begin the broadcasts. Jamim Shah, STN’s managing director, expressed his surprise at this obstruction, which was decided two days before the launch while the event had been announced a month earlier. Recently, the parliamentary Communication and Development Commission asked the minister to take a decision on the matter within two weeks.
For further information, contact Vincent Brossel at RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: asie@rsf.fr, Internet: http://www.rsf.fr
