Media investment will be made transparent : Communications Minister

21 July Kathmandu : Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has said the government was effortful to make the investment in the mass media transparent.

The minister said this at a discussion held at the Development and Technology Committee under the House of Representatives regarding the impact of COVID-19 pandemic among working journalists and in the communications sector.

He further said the government was exerting measures to make investments in the communications sector transparent so as to enable environment conducive for its professional growth, while arguing that it was the most public concern sector. The COVID-19 has moderately impacted the mass media, he said, adding the measures such as subsidy loan and time extension for loan repayment were introduced through the monetary policy. “The media house should not make working journalists jobless citing COVID-19 effects”, the Minister said. There was no alternative for the employers and workers to go for collaboration, he added.

As the media has also been legally defined as an industry, the problems surfaced in the sector would be sorted out through the joint efforts of the ministries of labour, finance and communications and information technology, Minister Dr Khatiwada noted.

“We will go back to earlier condition after mid-August and are making necessary preparation to operate multiple sectors in a normal way”, the minister claimed. “Media operation would also pass through a normal condition and there would be no situation to cut off working journalists”. The minister shared that the concept of social security fund was introduced being sensitive to the imminent problem of remuneration for working journalists in media.

He went on saying that the welfare advertisement would be fairly distributed after forming the Advertisement Board soon. On the occasion, lawmakers Ganesh Pahadi and Jip Tzering Lama said the working journalists should in no way be jobless due to COVID-19.

Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) general-secretary Ramesh Bista accused the media houses of expelling journalists from job citing the impact of COVID-19. The media remained insensitive to the creative works of journalists through which they made money and image, he further said.

In addition, Media Society chair Shuvashanker Kandel called for the government providing support to enliven the mass media. Also speaking on the occasion, ACORAB chair Subash Khatiwada, BAN chair Chandra Neupane, Nepal Press Union treasurer Saroj Adhikari and Narendra Saud of Nepal Press Organization raised voiced for the professional safety of working journalists.