Officials at the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) said the decision came as a move to discourage the tendency of holding on to the broadcast license for long. [break]
Under Secretary Shailaja Regmi Bhattarai, chief of Audio, Visual and Broadcasting Section at the MoIC said the broadcast licenses were revoked as they failed to operate within the stipulated time. "We are preparing to issue a public notice about the withdrawal of the broadcast licenses," she said.
According to the latest statistics, altogether 428 parties have acquired broadcast licenses for FM radios and 26 parties for TV stations. "We have decided to revoke broadcast licenses of 65 FM radios and 12 TVs," Bhattarai further said.
The FM radio stations whose licences were revoked were to operate outside the Kathmandu Valley while most of the TV stations facing revocation of licenses were to operate inside Kathmandu Valley.
The TVs stations that faced license revocation include Newsline Private Limited, Uplink International Private Limited, Everest Television Network Private Limited, Bodhigram Private Limited, Kapan, S K TV Private Limited, Lalitpur, Nobel Broadcast Private Limited, Citizen Television Private Limited, Moonlight TV Private Limited, Namaste Nepal TV Network, Global Nepali TV Private Limited, Shantika Lagi Sanchar Aviyan and Buddha Community Television, Butwal.
Interestingly, a TV broadcast license acquired by the tainted firm, Unity Life International, in the name of Unity Multimedia Society Private Limited is also among the 14 TV broadcast licenses revoked.
A fourth amendment to the National Broadcast Regulations has made it mandatory to operate both FM and TV stations within one year of acquiring broadcast licenses. The MoIC can give additional six months for operation if the party concerned comes with genuine reasons behind its failure to meet the deadline.
Minister for Information and Communications Shankar Pokharel shortly after assuming the portfolio on June 17 had formed a seven-member committee headed by the ministry´s joint secretary Mahendra Guragain to address the problem of FM frequency congestion among others.
Other members of the committee included Broadcasting Association of Nepal (BAN) President Bishnu Hari Dhakal, Community Radio Broadcasters´ Forum (CRBF) President Min Bahadur Shahi, independent expert Gopal Guragain, communication law expert Satish Krishna Kharel, the chief of Frequency Management Section at MoIC, Anup Nepal, and the chief of Legal Section at the MoIC, Rajendra Nepal.
The committee recently recommended revocation of licenses of the aforementioned FM radios and TV stations as the practice of holding on to broadcast licenses for years has deprived genuine broadcasters of the opportunity to get the license.
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