The federation has sent the 34-point suggestion committee to make the bill independent and professional, which includes amendments from name to structure.
What you should know
The Federation of Nepalese Journalists has submitted suggestions with the demand that some clauses of the 'Media Council Bill, 2082', which is currently under discussion, should be amended. On Sunday, the federation submitted its monthly suggestions on the bill.
In the 34-point suggestion submitted to the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee of the House of Representatives, the Federation emphasized that the proposed bill should be free from government control, autonomous, independent and in accordance with the spirit of professional journalism.
The Federation has changed the name of the bill to the structure of the Council, Chairman and members appointment process, qualification, A suggestion has been submitted saying that the clauses up to work duties and rights should be amended. The first suggestion of the federation is that the name of the
bill should be retained as 'Media Council Nepal' instead of 'Media Council'. "The press council is still doing monitoring work and the name of the media council is easily understood as a regulatory body," the federation argues.
In addition, it has been suggested that the phrase "remaining fully committed to full press freedom as mentioned in the preamble of the Constitution of Nepal" should be added in the preamble of the bill.
Federation has proposed to make the formation process of the council more inclusive and independent. It has been suggested to add a provision in the provisions related to the formation of the council in Section 6, that one member appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament and one appointed by the Speaker of the National Assembly be added.
The federation has also proposed changes in the structure of the recommendation committee for appointment of president and members. In the current bill, instead of the system of having a committee under the coordination of the secretary of the ministry, it is suggested that a three-member recommendation committee should be formed under the coordination of the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, with the Minister of Communication and Information Technology and the Chairman of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists. The federation believes that with such an arrangement, the dignity of the council will be maintained and the appointment process will be independent.
It is suggested that instead of the phrase "qualified to be a judge of the Supreme Court" in the qualification of the president, the phrase "qualified Chief Justice or Judge, Senior Advocate of the High Court" should be added and the period of experience should be increased from 15 years to 20 years. The Federation argues that this will further increase the dignity of the Council. In the case of members, the experience period has also been demanded to be increased from 10 years to 15 years.
The Federation has said that the current system of the Director General of Information and Broadcasting Department being the Secretary of the Council should be abolished to make the Council an autonomous regulatory body. Instead, it has been suggested that the chief executive officer should be appointed on the basis of open competition and the same person should hold the role of member secretary.
Similarly, the Council has demanded to be able to submit its annual report directly to the President and not to the Government of Nepal through the Ministry . The Federation has demanded the removal of the phrase 'with or without remuneration', because it is against the Working Journalist Act.
In addition, it has been proposed to remove section 27 of the bill, saying that it is not the Council that should provide press representative identity cards to journalists, but bodies such as the Mass Media Authority.
