The Committee on Information Technology passed the Public Service Broadcasting Bill

The bill originated in the National Assembly was received by the House of Representatives on 15th May 2080 in the committee for discussion. Earlier, there was a difference of opinion between the government and parliamentarians on the bill that was proposed to convert the two government media, Radio Nepal and Nepal Television into a national public service broadcasting.

A sub-committee was formed under the technology committee last May to find a solution to some of the provisions of the bill. Mainly, the parliamentarians could not reach an agreement on the direct control of the government and staff management in the leadership and operation of the council, which will be formed after the merger of the two government media organizations. The sub-committee submitted a report to the committee on July 31 after discussing the remaining sections in the committee.

The report was discussed in the committee and the bill was passed on Sunday. However, National Independent Party MP and ex-minister Sumana Shrestha has a different opinion about the president of the council being the representative of the government. She held the view that independent leadership in the council is necessary to ensure fair information flow. "As long as the government is headed by the council, fair news will not come out," she said.

Information and Communication Minister Prithvisubba Gurung said that to make the government-run media competitive and competent, it is more important than who will be the leader of the council, and what process will come from it . He opined that it would be appropriate to emphasize on the method of choosing leadership through open competition. In the

bill, it is proposed that the minister of communication or the minister of state will be the chairman of the council that will be formed to formulate the policy of the public service broadcasting organization and give policy instructions for the work to be carried out by the organization. Likewise, the coordinator of the recommendation committee has agreed on the proposal to be the chairman or member of the Public Service Commission. Although there is no recommendation committee provision in the original bill, the National Assembly gave an opinion to include the recommendation committee in it . In the

meeting, the management of employees of Radio Nepal and Nepal Television was also discussed. MPs Devendra Paudel, Prabhu Hazara, Chavi Lal Vishwakarma, Dig Bahadur Limbu, Chandrakant Bhandari, Ram Prakash Chaudhary, Deepa Sharma and others participated in the discussion on the bill.