The Central Committee of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists today drew the attention of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to solve the problems faced by journalists and the media sector. The delegation led by the president of the federation Nirmala Sharma met at the government residence in Baluwatar and submitted a 7-point attention letter to Prime Minister Oli.
After understanding the letter of attention, Prime Minister Oli has committed to study the demands that have been drawn to the attention of the Federation and provide all possible support. In the
attention letter, it is mentioned that even after the promulgation of the Working Journalists Act, the Federation had to continuously agitate for the provision of service facilities prescribed by the Act and Regulations. "We are in a shameful situation where most of the journalists do not even get regular wages. The government seems to be failing in the implementation of the laws created by the state . Therefore, the federation draws serious attention to establish an independent, independent and powerful press registrar's office to ensure labor rights in the communication sector,' the attention letter states.
This is the attention given by the Federation to the Prime Minister. We would like to inform you that the federation is aware that there should be no legal provisions contrary to the international standards of press and freedom of expression, our constitutional provisions and practice. In addition, we draw attention to the policy arrangement of mandatory representation of the federation in permanent and temporary structures related to the communication sector . As the incidents of violation of press and freedom of expression are increasing, we also request the state and non-state parties involved in such incidents to take legal action and arrange appropriate arrangements to reduce such incidents in the future.
- Three decades after the promulgation of the Working Journalist Act, the federation has to continue to agitate for the services provided by the law and regulations. We are in a shameful situation where most of the journalists do not even get regular wages. The government seems to be failing in the implementation of the laws created by the state . Therefore, the Federation again draws serious attention to the establishment of an independent, independent and powerful press registrar's office to ensure labor rights in the media sector. In addition, the federation expects the initiative of the government to make all the media houses compulsorily join the social security fund as well as the timely and fair salary increase. We also propose to make the Minimum Wage Determination Committee stronger and more effective by giving it the responsibility of monitoring.
- The federation requests to ensure the issues addressed in the budget of the government of Nepal, provision of free medical treatment for journalists, maintenance of the federation's office building, provision of livelihood for disabled journalists, etc. After a long initiative of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, even though the government has started to provide 'Senior Journalist Scholarship', we draw attention to the fact that there are some impractical provisions in the 'Journalist Scholarship Fund Operation Standard-2078' and it is necessary to simplify it .
- Federation requests the government to establish a mass media training institute immediately to improve the skills of journalists. There is a flood of false, factual and misleading information in the context of increasing confusion among the general public as to which mass media is which social network. In order to reduce this, it is necessary to conduct a media literacy campaign focused on the mass media, and the federation is hopeful that the government will take appropriate steps to conduct such a campaign through the federation.
- Although the government is aware of the fact that Nepal's communication sector is going through an economic crisis, the state has not paid enough attention to the protection and development of this sector. It is the responsibility of the state to financially protect all media including self-employment so that they can face the threat that may come to democracy in the future . Being aware of this, the government considers it appropriate to increase the public welfare advertisement by 50 percent with a suitable financial package . The federation strongly demands to amend the law to allow the advertising board to work according to its purpose and to implement a proportionate advertising system. Although the budget addresses the provision of public welfare advertisements to online media, we also insist on solving the problems in its implementation.
- We request to increase the amount of subsidy received by Nepal Journalist Federation through the annual budget on behalf of the Government of Nepal for the capacity building of journalists and the operation of the federation.
- Based on the identity card issued by the federation for its members, we request to arrange an environment of unrestricted entry to Singha Darbar and other places.