Nepalese Journalism

Last month I received an e-mail from Dinesh Maharjan, a journalist with the National Press Club in Nepal. He is inviting us to establish a "bilateral friendship" to grow between our two organizations. "We believe that always hard work under the UNESCO principles and international information order to benefit the occupation rights and security for the journalism."

They will be celebrating the 23rd Anniversary of the National press Club, Nepal (NPCN) in September 2007 and are interested in a journalism exchange as part of a "Journalism for Peace" program.

When I visited Nepal in 2000, I had the pleasure of meeting Purushottam Sigdel, a journalist who was targetted by the Maoist Rebels. I was able to help him acquire political assylum in the United States. I invited him to provide some insight into the journalism situation currently in Nepal:

"... the jouranlism in Nepal is now gaining momentum around the country. Nepalese people, in recent years, ahve really enjoyed the press freedom despite certain flaws and limitations. The grim reality is that 90% of the journals published in nepal are nothing but the political mouthpiece of different political parties. It has always been a bad culture in Nepal that it is a privilege to be the journalist of ruling party. It is rare to find non-partisan, impartial and people-oriented journalists.

"I also regret to say that most of the journalsits change their color, as Chameleon does, according to their vested interest and political environment. Common Nepalese people do not trust them because of their self centered, unprofessional and irresponsible behavior.

"We have a popular saying in our country that 'when the elephant is in trouble, even the grog starts kicking him.' This proverb actually applies to our journalists. Usually they write with great fanfare about the elephant but once they see elephant is in trouble, they write with the similar fanfare about the frog. But again, if they see elephant coming back, they start writing about him.

"Nepalese journalism lacks honesty and professionalism, which I think is commonplace in the third-world countries. It is sad to say that jouranlism in Nepal has become more miggickry rather than factual informative. Having said that there are still very good jouranlsits but unfortunately are in shadow.

"What I mean to say is any journalist in Nepal without political blessing can not survive in this field. National PRess Club, Nepal is a platform from where journalists of all and sundry put forward their voices of collective interests. This is an association recognized by the government."

- Alan Kania