KATHMANDU, Feb 1: The government has drafted a new law to abolish public welfare advertisements for the media. In the draft of the Media Council Bill prepared to replace the Press Council Act, 2048 BS, the provision of public welfare advertisement given by the government has been removed.

The government has prepared the draft of the bill which will be submitted in the next session of parliament. "A draft law has been prepared to remove the subsidy budget while raising questions about the appropriateness of subsidies for the print media," said a high-ranking source at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT).

Section 10 of the Press Council Act has provision for a review committee responsible for distributing public welfare advertisements. In that section, it is mentioned that the government will form a review committee for the distribution of advertisement to newspapers after consulting the Press Council, and the same committee will classify and allocate funds for public welfare advertisements.

The government has been distributing the amount based on the classification of newspapers. However, there is no committee on public welfare advertising in the Media Council Bill. "There is no review committee, since there is no review committee, there is no other legal framework related to the provision for distribution of public welfare advertisements to newspapers," said a source of MoCIT.

Officials within the ministry are not sure about how, where, by whom, and on what basis public welfare advertisements will be distributed in the absence of a committee. The new law on communication is set to repeal the existing one, but the draft of the Media Council Bill does not address the provision for public welfare distribution.

The Maoist-led government is now contemplating canceling the subsidy given to the media, in a situation when a new approach is deemed necessary to support the print media, which is in financial crisis, due to factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has finalized the Media Council Bill, which is to be submitted to Parliament to replace the Press Council Act, 2048 BS. "Questions have been raised about the usefulness of millions of rupees given to the print media. Therefore, the ministry has prepared the bill for reconsideration, which may either give a second thought to providing funds to new media or entirely remove this provision. According to sources from the Ministry of Communication, the question is being raised as to why grant funds to the media that criticizes the same government that funds them.

At present, the government is providing Rs 217 million annually for print media and Rs 100 million for other media.

Although Communication Minister Rekha Sharma expressed plans to introduce a new bill for radical changes and development in the communication sector, the government's attitude towards the media has become clear with the scrapping of subsidies and public welfare advertisements.

Such a bill is about to be registered in the Parliament at a time when the media organizations are raising voice for arrangements for special financial subsidies for the protection and promotion of the crisis-ridden media.

Media related organizations including Press Council Nepal, Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) have proposed that the amount of advertising given in all media should be doubled. But the government is drafting a law which is exactly the opposite.

The bill put forward by the coalition government has adopted a strict policy towards the media. The Nepal Press Union, a well-wisher organization of the ruling party Nepali Congress, has informed Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat that the public welfare advertisements received by the media should not be removed, and that it should be ensured in the new law.

During the tenure of the KP Oli government, parties aligned with the current coalition government formally opposed the media council bill, labeling it anti-people's rights and anti-media. The FNJ conducted a phase-wise movement.

FNJ President Bipul Pokharel emphasized that the provision for media classification should not be removed from the Press Council Act.

"If the provision regarding the classification of newspapers is removed from the Media Council Bill, it must be clearly specified where it will be placed. Without ensuring this clarity, the bill should not proceed to Parliament," said FNJ President Pokharel.

 
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