Yet another journalist has become a victim of violence and intimidation, reinforcing the fact that the authorities are still failing to ensure a safe environment for them to perform their duties. On Friday night, unidentified miscreants attacked a crime reporter of Bangla daily Jugantor with some sort of powdery substance that stung, leading to his hospitalisation.

KATHMANDU, March 29: Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Devraj Ghimire, has extended his best wishes to the media persons on the occasion of the 69th establishment day of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), the umbrella organization of the country's journalists.

BIRATNAGAR, Dec 25: Chief Minister of Koshi Province, Kedar Karki, has said journalists have a paramount role in the empowerment of the provincial governments and in the implementation of the constitution.

RUKUM WEST, Dec 20:  The Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has assisted journalists affected by the November 3 earthquake in Rukum West.

KATHMANDU, Dec 1: Chure River System Conservation Journalists Society (CRSCJS) has honored five journalists for their outstanding contribution for the conservation of Chure through dissemination of news.

KATHMANDU, Nov 21: The International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) is organizing the International Women Film Festival. IAWRT is the umbrella organization of female journalists working in the national and international radio and television media.

Nepalgunj, May 15: Journalists and civil activists have expressed their commitment to give priority to the issues of marginalized communities.

It has been 16 years since the political parties signed a Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) to formally end the decade-long Maoist insurgency which tormented the country and the citizens between 1996 to 2006. However, countless people killed during the armed insurgency and their families are still denied justice. CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the leader who led the armed insurgency, currently leads the government with unprecedented support in parliament. The harrowing tales of the victims are fading from the memories of the general public but those who suffered during the war are still tormented by the wounds that never heal. It is estimated that the war resulted in the deaths of over 17,000 people, many of them facing extreme torture in the extra-judicial killings by both the then Maoist rebels and the state’s security agencies. Among those who were killed include journalists, who were in the forefront of war for carrying out their professional duty. Republica’s Nagendra Upadhyay has compiled a list of some journalists who were tortured to death during the armed conflict with hope that the the contributions made by slain journalists do not go in vain and that they are provided with justice, if not reparation to their family members who are struggling to make ends meet.

KATHMANDU, Sept 19: Journalists are prohibited from entering the main event of the original ceremony organized on the occasion of the Constitution Day.

MAKWANPUR, July 22: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has requested journalists to practice fair journalism “as cases of premeditated accusations have been on the rise in recent times.”

Babita Basnet, the editor of the vernacular weekly, Ghatana Ra Bichar, was heavily trolled by a group of people for one of her recent articles. Her article called for making a policy review of a law related to rape cases. She cited some examples of teen rape offenders whom she had visited in jails and interviewed. According to her write-up, they were in a relationship with their girlfriends but later were framed as rapists and sent to jail.

KATHMANDU, Jan 21: The total number of journalists registered with the Federation of Nepali Journalists, Bagmati Province who have contracted COVID-19 has reached 230.

KATHMANDU, Nov 13: CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal has directed journalists affiliated with the party not to consume alcohol. Chairman Nepal said that he will not respect journalists who are found to have consumed alcohol.

KATHMANDU, Minimum Wages Fixation Committee Chairperson Rajendra Aryal has asked the-newly appointed Minister for Communication and Information Technology Nainkala Thapa to unveil relief packages for journalists hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

KATHMANDU, May 7: 91 journalists associated with the Federation of Nepalis Journalists (FNJ) have so far contracted the coronavirus.

Target on their backs

May 3, 2021 09:03 am

Honest reporting in Pakistan draws the ire of powerful quarters  and some journalists pay the ultimate price

JHAPA, April 29: Three journalists and one Province Assembly Member from Jhapa have tested positive for coronavirus.

FNJ general convention on April 7

March 17, 2021 15:55 pm

KATHMANDU, March 17: The general convention of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has been scheduled for April 7.

KATHMANDU, Feb 8: The government started administering the COVID-19 vaccines to journalists, employees at UN agencies, embassies and various diplomatic missions from Monday.

An Australian television journalist said Monday he has the new coronavirus and assumes he contracted it while meeting with actress-singer Rita Wilson in Sydney.

KATHMANDU, Jan 28: The Legislative Committee of the National Assembly has endorsed the much-talked about Nepal Media Council Bill, removing the provision of fining journalists up to Rs 1 million for violating media code of ethics. But the committee has added a new provision to the bill, making it mandatory for journalists to obtain a license for the job.

KATHMANDU, Jan 13: A three-month-long training on Chinese language and culture for Nepali journalists has kicked off in Lalitpur today. Nepal-China Media Forum and Confucius Institute of the Kathmandu University (KU) jointly organized the training.

MAHOTTARI, Jan 8: A group of journalists were ‘roughed up’ inside the office of the mayor of the Janakpurdham Sub-Metropolitan City on Tuesday.

DEC 11: China imprisoned at least 48 journalists in 2019, more than any other country, displacing Turkey as the most oppressive place for the profession, a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists report said on Wednesday.

Presidents vs press

December 8, 2019 11:30 am

CARACAS – US President Donald Trump has labeled news outlets the “enemy of the people.” Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has called journalists “putrid” and “immoral,” and accused them of mounting “sensationalist attacks” against him. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) has labeled them “nobodies, conservatives, know-it-alls, hypocrites,” as well as “fifí” (bourgeois, pretentious) and “chayoteros” (a term implying that they take bribes).

KATHMANDU, Dec 2: A sub-committee under the Legislative Committee of the upper house has recommended minimizing fines against journalists for breach of media code of ethics in the much talked-about the Media Council Bill.

KATHMANDU, May 25: At a time when journalists and media stakeholders are protesting various provisions in the Media Council Bill now registered in parliament , the press freedom advocacy organization Freedom Forum has suggested amendments to 20 provisions in 15 sections of the bill.

KATHMANDU, May 15: Civil society activists have urged the government to immediately take away the three bills registered in the Federal Parliament.

BIDUR, May 12: Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Banskota has assured that the Media Council Bill was being brought for the greater good of journalists. At a press conference organized by Press Chautari Nepal and Press Centre Nepal here today, Minister Banskota shared that new rules would be introduced to ensure journalists’ rights and welfare.

KATHMANDU, May 12: As part of its ongoing five-day agitation, Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), the umbrella organization of the journalists, is holding interaction with legal experts, editors, media experts and former presidents of the FNJ over the proposed changes in the media law today afternoon.

Your daily dose of missed important news of the day.

YANGON, May 7: Two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar after they were convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act walked free from a prison on the outskirts of Yangon on Tuesday after spending more than 500 days behind bars.

DUBAI, May 1: Amnesty International called on Yemen’s Houthi movement, which controls the capital Sanaa, to free 10 journalists held for nearly four years on what the rights group described as trumped-up spying charges.

Democracy’s discontents

March 31, 2019 02:05 am

Dichotomy dictates Nepal’s democracy. The mainstream news media is dominated by journalists, who hold an unwavering faith in democracy. However, a large majority of opinionators, freelancers, and wordsmiths hail from political ideologies that are hostile to democracy. The national narratives and political discourses seem to be titling toward favoring authoritarianism. Hence, the unwarranted desire for a ‘soft tyrant’ gets currency among the general public.

It was 1982, the height of the civil war in El Salvador. Four Dutch TV journalists had linked up with leftist rebels near the town of El Paraiso, which has an army base on its outskirts.

MANILA, Feb 15: The head of a Philippine news website that has locked horns with President Rodrigo Duterte was freed on bail on Thursday, a day after her widely condemned arrest on libel charges that critics say is a government effort to bully journalists.

BHAKTAPUR, Jan 19 : Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Banskota has reiterated his commitment to enforce minimum wages for working journalists by all means.

According to The Committee to Protect Journalists, 53 journalists lost their lives on the job so far this in 2018. The advocacy group claims that 34 of them were singled out for murder.

KATHMANDU, Nov 30: Government spokesperson Gokul Baskota has warned media owners and journalists to think about their investment and their jobs while writing news stories that are unfavorable to the government. He said media should not forget that the government is the main source of news as well as advertising revenue.

KATHMANDU, Nov 14: The Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has urged all working and independent journalists to be enrolled in third-phase of accident insurance programme launched for them.

YANGON, Nov 5: Lawyers for two Reuters journalists sentenced in Myanmar to seven years in prison for possession of official documents are appealing the verdict, the news agency said Monday.

KATHMANDU, Nov 3: Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Anup Raj Sharma, has said that journalists should be allowed to write about even the personal issues of the public office bearers.

KATHMANDU, Oct 26: Journalists and other staffers of Nepal Republic Media (NRM) paid tributes to Hemraj Gyawali, a pioneer in professionalizing the Nepali media, on the 13th day of his demise Thursday.

AFGHANISTAN, Sept 21: Moments after Afghan journalist Samim Faramarz wrapped up his live report on the latest suicide attack in Kabul, a car bomb exploded just metres away, killing him and his cameraman Ramiz Ahmadi.

YANGON, Sept 17: At least 100 Myanmar youth activists and journalists called for the release of two jailed Reuters journalists on Sunday, warning that the seven-year prison terms handed to the pair this month threaten the public’s right to information.

KATHMANDU, Sept 13: The media fraternity across the country is seriously concerned over the worsening situation of press freedom as the authorities have started arresting journalists for publishing news that sought to expose corruption and malpractices.

Democracy dies when press is not free

September 13, 2018 00:25 am

The world, it seems, is becoming hostile toward journalists and the free press. In the United States, President Donald Trump persecutes media by dismissing them as “fake news” outlets. In Bangladesh, journalists are often attacked and even murdered by extremist groups for reporting the truth, while the government has failed to provide them security.

POKHARA, July 28: Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Gokul Prasad Baskota, has said the government was working to formulate laws required for the development of journalism.

KATHMANDU, June 8: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and the Nepal Press Union (NPU) in condemning the threats to and harassment of journalists of an online news portal by student leaders in Nepal.

KATHMANDU, June 2: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has honoured the members of the First Women Journalists Everest Expedition -2018.