Experts have said that a law should be made to keep the media council free from political interference and financial control. They said that the government has brought forward the Media Council Bill in order to keep the council under control and suggested that it should be comprehensively amended.

At the Sunday meeting of the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives, stakeholders and experts suggested that the media council bill should be reformed right from the definition. They say that the government's interference in the appointment of the chairman and members of the council should be removed, it should be made financially autonomous and a high-level mechanism should be put in place for the appointment of officials.

The then Communications Minister Rekha Sharma registered the bill in the National Assembly on 12 Baisakh 2081. In the bill, there is a provision for the government to appoint the chairman and members of the council on the recommendation of a three-member committee consisting of an expert member appointed by the government under the coordination of the secretary of the ministry and a joint secretary of the ministry. The bill was passed by the National Assembly on 28th January 2081. Taranath Dahal, the former president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, says that the government did not mention the word "completely independent press" when bringing the

bill, so it is clear what kind of council the government is trying to create. He said that the provision of the recommendation committee was removed from the bill by the upper house and a new provision was made to recommend from the council of ministers. He also suggested that a recommendation committee should be formed under the leadership of the Speaker of the National Assembly. It is a policy of free and self-regulated communication. However, the word 'independent' is not in the preamble,' he said, 'This bill needs serious reform.' He said that the

media council needs the representation of media, media consumers and media experts or other bodies. He said that the representation of the Parliament is mandatory to form the Media Council. Dahal said, "The council should have a structure of 15 members. The chairman should be a non-journalist, a former judge. The senior staff of the council should be the member secretary.'

The former president of the federation, Shiv Village, explained the rights of the council to the parliamentarians. He clarified that the media council is going to be arranged to prevent the press from spreading false information to the citizens and to prevent the government from interfering with the press and freedom of expression. The ground must be prepared for the construction and implementation of a capable structure that can do this work. Within this structure, laws should be made on the basis of self-regulation rather than taking action or showing compliance to journalists or the media," he said. "This is a structure with which journalists and editors are accountable. It is an organization of judges of journalists.'  Govinda Acharya, the former president of the federation, said that the council should have the jurisdiction to monitor only the content of

media. Rishikesh Dahal, Vice-Professor of Tribhuvan University, opined that the proposed Media Council is on the way to go backwards than the present Press Council. "This bill shows that no one can be confident that this council can be autonomous or not," he said. Suresh Acharya, chief commissioner of the National Information Commission, said that freeing the council from the burden of media classification, giving the right to distribute press representative certificates, and introducing self-regulation and self-evaluation in the