Kathmandu, Jan. 14:To what extent the press freedom in the post-democracy period has been used in a judicious manner was the subject of debate at a seminar on “Press Freedom and its Utilisation” organised by the Department of Information today.
]Former Speaker and senior advocate Daman Nath Dhungana presented a paper on “Press Freedom and its Utilisation in the Present Context”.
“Press primarily bears a social responsibility and should be focussed on the goals of human rights and social justice, Dhungana said. “Press should take up issues and follow the stories up to a logical end,” he added.
“Solutions to problem of democracy lie only in greater democracy and the solutions of the problems in press lie in greater press freedom alone,” he added.
“In the context of press freedom and making the government accountable to public by keeping them informed forms the spine of a democratic system. And keeping this in view, our Constitution has incorporated the Right to information as a Fundamental right,” he said.
He pointed out anomalies in the present state of media including partisan press, lack of responsible journalism, especially among the weeklies and counted Self realisation and introspection as the most important measures to combat the problems.
“Although not strictly in the category of an industry, media more or less has already become one with investment of crores of rupees by the private sector and newspapers are gradually becoming a part of the life style of the masses,” said journalist and Member of Parliament Raghuji Pant.
Citing that the notion of absolute press freedom is a myth everywhere in the world, he added, “interests of the big media houses now have begun to influence editorial policies. The political leaders still carry the legacy of single party system and the politicians still cannot accept criticism in a normal manner and are responsible for partisan press, he said.
Commenting on the paper, Kishor Nepal, press advisor to the Prime Minister called the paper very convincing and theoretical and said, “The expectations from the press are too high and unrealistic to some extent while it still has to gain maturity. Mentioning the report on the salaries of the journalists, he said there are many practical areas where problems exist.
Advisor at the Ministry of Information and Communications, Purusottam Dahal and general secretary of Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Tara Dahal also commented on the paper.
Homnath Dahal, stressing that the press should follow stories in the quest of truth and not leave them half way, said Corruption should be treated as a mission by the press.
President of Sancharika, Bandana Rana, stressing that the government should fulfil the commitments made at Beijing said, “as long as women’s voices are not heard in the mainstream, press freedom is meaningless.”
Director of the department of Information, Yuba Raj Pandey delivered the welcome address.
Participated in by journalists from different media, government officials and advisors, the first session of the one-day seminar was chaired by senior journalist Gobinda Biyogi and the second session by Raghuji Pant.