KATHMANDU: Stakeholders, including the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), have protested the move of the Election Commission (EC) to monitor mass media and social media by setting up a cyber bureau of the army and the police under the name of media monitoring at its secretariat.
Stakeholders and experts have denounced the EC-set up Press Office for monitoring the media, citing that it has infringed upon the jurisdiction of the Press Council of Nepal.
Senior journalist and former chairman of Press Council, Rajendra Dahal, speaking at an interaction organized by the Press Council, said that the EC had erred by hiring security personnel for monitoring.
He opined that the EC could monitor the election code of conduct closely, however, involving security agencies in the process has raised doubts about its integrity. This step is not appropriate, said Dahal.
Dahal suggested that the Press Council should be more active than in the past in the monitoring of the adherence to the code of conduct despite the EC not delegating the Press Council the responsibility of monitoring.
“The EC has reminded the royal era by including the army and police in its monitoring structure. The EC cannot go beyond the constitution,” said Ganesh Basnet, president of Press Chautari. “I am ready to go to jail if action is taken against me for denouncing this move.”
The Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Press Chautari, Press Union, Press Center, Samajwadi Press Organization have concluded that the EC made a mistake by not coordinating with the Press Council and demanded the EC to correct the decision.
FNJ Secretary Gobind Chaulagai said that the EC created a mechanism against freedom of expression and press. The federation has already issued a statement saying that the EC action is wrong and will respond with stern protest if it is not corrected immediately.
“We are serious because the mechanism created by the EC is wrong,” he said, adding, “What the EC is doing now is against the constitution. The task of media monitoring should be given to the Press Council.”
The Election Commission has established a press office to monitor the media and social media content.
It is said that the mechanism formed under the coordination of EC joint secretary will include representatives of the army, the cyber bureau of the Nepal Police, and the advertisement board.
A conflict has started between the Council and the Commission saying that the Commission is monitoring the media in order to curtail the rights of the Council.
Stakeholders also termed the latest decision taken by the commission as authoritarianism. They emphasized that media monitoring should be done by Press Council and not Election Commission.
Kumar Bhattarai, the president of Broadcasting Association of Nepal, said that other than the Press Council, no one else had the right to monitor media content and take action.
Participants also recalled that the council had effectively monitored the last local elections and that it had given a good message to the media world.
Santosh Paudel, Secretary General of the Press Center close to the Maoists, said that it is wrong to create a mechanism to monitor the media by keeping the army and the police.
Gopal Poudel of Media Nepal, General Secretary of Samajwadi Press Bhuparaj Khadka also opposed the EC action.
Press Council Nepal President Balkrishna Basnet said that they will be more active in implementing the code of conduct during the election.
“We are more active than other times as our job is to monitor the content of the media, enforce the code of conduct and coordinate the necessary for that,” he said.
Various expert journalists, including Deepak Pandey, Thakur Belbase and Ram Prasad Dahal, participated in the interaction.
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