Kathmandu: Yuwalaya on Friday made public a report of their year-long media monitoring study held on 10 leading national dailies.

National dailies like Republica, Kantipur, Annapurna Post, Rajdhani, Gorakhapatra, Nagarik, Nepal Samacharpatra, The Rising Nepal , The Kathmandu Post and The Himalayan Times were covered for the study.

A press statement released by the organization informed that news stories published on six issues concerning youth were studied for the monitoring. The categories included topics like young people's participation, sexual and reproductive health rights, gender empowerment and social inclusion, disaster risk reduction and climate change, youth and livelihood, and child marriage.

Based on their analysis, the organization concluded that issues of gender empowerment and social inclusion are gradually getting priority in the media. They found 105 news stories on gender empowerment and social inclusion—the highest number. They also found stories regarding child marriage (73), youth and livelihood (65), sexual and reproductive health rights (45), youth people's participation (45) and disaster risk reduction and climate change (45).
The stories were also categorized into Provinces based on their bylines and datelines and the media where it was published, the statement read.  

"The findings are evident of the fact that mainstream media are biased between the capital city and rural areas. But, they also suggest that youth residing and working in the capital as well as other major cities have a greater responsibility to make youth of other regions aware about their rights and responsibilities, and bring them together in the development process," said Sanjog Thakuri, Yuwalaya's president.