KATHMANDU, March 24 : The parliament's Development Committee on Tuesday directed concerned government bodies to effectively implement the provisions set out in the Working Journalists Act 2051 BS and Working Journalists Regulations 2053 BS to address the problems of working journalists across the country.
After holding meeting with Minister for Information and Communications Dr Minendra Rijal, office bearers of Nepal Press Council and Federation of Nepali Journalists on Tuesday, the parliamentary committee also directed the government bodies to make monitoring of the situation to see whether the media houses were providing appointment letters to journalists, minimum wages, medical treatment facilities, provident fund and other facilities.
The meeting asked the government to introduce innovative policy measures to ensure full implementation of those provisions and also bring the media houses failing to abide by the existing provisions on working journalists under legal scrutiny.
The meeting directed the government to bring amendment to the Working Journalists Act to suit to the "changing reality" in the media sector and ensure that appropriate arrangements are made for the welfare of working journalists. The parliamentary committee has directed concerned government bodies to hold interaction with media house owners to understand their problems and take necessary initiatives to resolve the problems of journalists.
Among other things, the meeting directed the government to prepare concrete criterion to identify working journalists, make scientific classification of working journalists and provide identity card to genuine journalists after making a regular monitoring if they are working in media sectors. The meeting had held meeting with concerned government officials amid complaints that hardly any media houses in the country were effectively implementing the existing legistations including the Workign Journalists Act and its Regulations.
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