The government has formed a three-member committee to investigate into list of jounalists, published by the government last week, stating that 84 journalists had taken monetary assitance during the king’s direct rule period.

General Secretary of Weekly/Fortnightly National Network Kishor Shrestha said that the Ministry of Information and Communication has formed a committee, led by the ministry’s legal officer Amar Poudel to investigate the list’s authenticity.

“The state minister for information and communication Dilendra Prasad Badu said that he has formed a committee to investigate the list of the journalists, as the ministry had released the list without proper investigation, to punish the culprits after fact-finding,” he said.

The minister talked about the committee to a delegation of journalists working for weeklies and fortnightlies.

The delegation also discussed the problems of weeklies and fortnightlies with the minister. They also demanded that the press passes of fake journalists should be confiscated.

Meanwhile, Federation of Nepalese Journalists and Working journalists struggle committee appealed to all media houses to reinstate all journalists who were sacked after the royal takeover.

Issuing separate statements on Friday, they also asked the media houses to immediately provide salary, compensation and other facilities to such journalists and warned of strike if the media houses failed to do so.