This news is odd, considering that:

a) Nepal has at least 17 large broadsheet English and Nepali dailies.

b) It has given licenses to more than 30 FM radio stations, and to about a half a dozen TV stations.

c) There's a very active/vocal Federation of Journalists of various stripes who never tire of asserting their "democratic credentials" with pride.

So, the question is: Despite all of the above, what has gone wrong for Nepal to be ranked just above a few totalitarian/communist regimes?

oohi
ashu



************
Nepal 160th in Press Freedom Index

KOL Report

KATHMANDU, Oct 27 - Nepal has one of the worst press freedom records in the world.
The third annual worldwide press freedom index announced by Reporters Without Border on Tuesday has placed Nepal in the 160th position in the entire list of 167.

The only other countries falling behind Nepal are Vietnam, China, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Burma, Cuba and North Korea respectively.

The report said that the greatest press freedom was found in northern Europe including Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Norway terming them a haven of peace for journalists.

The index measures the state of press freedom in the world reflecting the degree of freedom journalists and news organizations enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the state to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.

According to the organization the index was compiled taking account of events of press freedom violations between 1 September 2003 and 1 September 2004.

RWB had asked its partner organizations including 14 freedom of expression organizations in five continents, its 130 correspondents around the world, as well as journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists, to answer 52 questions to indicate the state of press freedom in 167 countries. (dds)

it IS rediculous....

however, things that have made things worse for nepalese press freedom:

* killing of some journalists....... maobadis killed some last yr... and, there are many maobadi-affiliated journalists in jail
* kantipur complex and another newspaper's buildings were destroyed just after the f**ing Iraqi militants killed 12 of our friends. (was it before sep 1???) and not sure if these things might have been considered.
* RWB might not have been in nepal at that time...........
* but one reason is for sure, we are not officially allowed to criticize things concerning the royal family....

pls bring in some more reasons.............. if there might be...

however, i do feel the result is strange.............

The Federation of Nepali Journalists -- which pockets millions of rupees from the government that it is supposed to report on -- has not not made any comment on
this surprising ranking.

It won't.

Why?

Because this ranking -- despite there being numerical diversity of media in Nepal --
plays to our Nepali media mavens' advantage.

Here's how.

Just as the country of Bangladesh spent the 1980s promoting its image as an international beggar to get aid from just about anyone (a practice that's been
since discarded), the FNJ too likes this sort of "lack of press freedom in Nepal"
image promoted so that it and its members can continue to secure all sorts of easy
donor funds to do all kinds of work on, well . . . conflict, governance, human rights, gender, civil society and what not.

(Pratyoush Onta -- a long-time media watcher in Nepal -- has querstioned the effectiveness of these funds in his articles in The Nation weekly and elsewhere.)

And so, I can very well imagine every funding proposal submitted by media organisations
having this sort of spirit.

"Nepal is a country between India and China. Nepal is ranked 160 out of 167 in the 2004 Press Freedom Index . . . so give us money in the name covering conflict, governance, human rights, gender, civil society . . . "


******

After all, how else does one explain the fact that The Kathmandu Post, which has

this editorial

-http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=20600

also has this article by Kanak in the same edition?
-http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=20603


[All thiis, of course, is NOT to deny that jounalists have been killed by both the state and the Maoists in Nepal.]

The truth, behind how this ranking will be used by various parties, remains a lot more complex.

oohi
ashu

It is a different thing to rank Nepal's media 'conservative' or lacking in press freedom, and a completely different thing as to how many media outlets Nepal has. You can have quite a few that could outnumber media outlets in other countries, yet whether the facts reach the people will still remain questionable. If we go back and look at America's media policy during the Vietnam war (or not to go too far, American media during the Iraq war), would you consider it 'press freedom' in its truest sense??

While Nepal's media has a trend of its own (probably initiated and curbed by the move taken by the government/international forces). To cite a minor example, Maoists were first referred to by the press as 'terrorists' and 'insurgents', later were less negatively levelled as 'rebels', 'guerrillas' and 'activists' implying that they were fighting for a cause, and after 2001, as 'terrorists'. How and when is the press 'free' when it swings in the direction the situation demands...

Nepal's recent MDG report claims an increase in the percentage of people who have access to safe drinking water from 61 percent in 1996 to 72 percent in 2001.But I can be skeptical that the 'increase in installation of water pipelines in houses doesn't ensure the access to safe drinking water'. I might be completely wrong, but how many of the media houses we have in Nepal are news-based (do the 30 FM radios make any difference in the above mentioned press freedom issue if all they impart to the public is entertainment and some news borrowed from another source?). And I completely believe that the research could be true given the high level of political instability in Nepal and the interest (or fear- could also be that of the Maoists) of the media outlets to report what the situation demands and not the facts.

Ashu ji, your explanation above only reminds me of conspiracy theory (at its worst-- and if it works!).

DC Girl,

Though I find the ranking a bit surprising (especially when it was calculated by asking a
set of questions to journalists and to know that Nepal now ranks just a few notches above North Korea and Cuba), my larger point was NOT to question the
truth behind the ranking per se . . . as you seem to indicate with a touch of indignation.

I was and am more interested in the other side of this ranking ko kura . . in seeing,
as I wrote above, how "this ranking will be used by various parties" [especially the FNJ]
to further their own oddball agenda.

I expected some sort of a response from FNJ re: this ranking.
It has not given any -- and it's been two days since the ranking was made public.

I find its silence quite interesting but not at all surprising . . . here are two articles that may give you some context as to FNJ's thinking.

-http://www.nation.com.np/archive/archive_23_23_columns_23a.htm

-http://www.nation.com.np/column_2.htm

*********

Other than that, it's the journalists outside of Kathmandu who have borne the brunt of Maoist violence and that of the state. Doing journalism in Lamki in Kailali is risky. Doing it in Kathandu is NOT.

oohi
ashu

More precisely, the Federation of Nepali Journalists is in an interesting quandary.

a) It cannot welcome the ranking publicly because doing so would be uncomfortable
to the government which has just given millions of rupees to the this body of journalists.

b) It cannot disagree with the ranking because doing so would make things odd for it to apply for donor funds in the name of usual stuff.

What's the strategy then?
Lie low, and benefit from all sides: money from the government and from the donors; sympathy from everyone else . . . and all these WITHOUT HAVING TO TAKE ANY RISK RISK to expand the degrees of press freedom.

oohi
ashu

My surprise matches with Ashu's surprise that ranking Nepal just
on top of communist regime is terribly hard to believe. One of the
reason of Nepal being 160th in list is the Nepal Govt.'s double standard
inside Kathmandu and outside Kathmandu valley. I can guess that
the CDO's who are so powerful to do anything on anyone who
reports things that is beyond the expectation of the CDOs. Who
are CDOs? Those who passed PSC's exam as a "ratante" and without
any real PA (Public administration) training to other basic knowledge in
the administration. Most of the CDOs are appointed using hook and crook.
I have seen several classmates and senior students from university
in India when passed the equivalent Public Administration job in India
used to say that they were taken to 3 years training camp before
giving any responsibilities. Training matters, education matters when
it comes to crucial decision making level. Why a peon of CDO office
can claim that "CDO ko kaam ta ma pani chalai dina sakchhu, kehi ta
garnu pardaina. Just say no to everything, and all the problems".
What lies the difference between good governance and current
governance is that current administrators don't try to solve problem
what a citizen expect, but, by using the notion of "you should not
this and that". "You are not allowed to do this" is the only solution
that comes from CDO office. So, outside Kathmandu there is
complete absence of real journalism because of fear of Maoist
and also of CDOs and security officers. I never realized that
it was so extreme to rank us just on top of communist regime.

So, we are completely inside a communist regime w.r.t. press freedom.
Well, if the press freedom in Kathmandu alone has to be ranked, I am sure
it will be within top 50. Kathmandu alone is not Nepal. Kathmandu is
still "amarabati kantipur nagari for Nepali journalists".

GP

Who gets the medal for it? I think FNJ should organize a celebration and hand over a plaque to SherBahadur, SuryaBahadur, LokendraBahadur and any other Bahadurs left for this heart rendering achievement.

In the similar vain, Chambers of Commerce should organize a ceremony for moving upward, literally upward, the country's ranking in the last decades in per capita income and give a plaque each starting from BhekBahadur, BharatBahadur, PCLohany, MohanMan, HarkaGurung, RabindraNath, YadavPrasad, RamSharan, BharatMohan, et al, for their sincere contribution to making country's economy go down over the decades and ranking go up, again literally, while their families and friends have propspered...

Remember the text book rot....

Nepal is an agriculture based country
Nepal has the highest mountain in the world
Nepal is the home of world famous Gurkhas
The light of Asia, Gautama Buddha, was born in Nepal

Now,

Nepal is one of the ten poorest countries in the world
Nepal is one of the most corrupt countries in the world
and so on.....

Such a beautiful and managable country and what these
incompetent and ghuskhoris have turned it into. Don't curse
others..... if your parents, family members and friends are
indulged into ghuskhri practices, it is the time to do a
prayashchit. Try to dissuade them from turning the
country a haven of beiman and ghuskhoris...

Chhi chhi chhi chi....
Besides ourselves, who are we to blame??? The party goes on.