Journalists and media operators have different roles and responsibilities. But in recent days, due to some public incidents, this dual role has not only widened the distance between the local level and journalism, but the 'journalists' have also come under question. In many cases, because of this role of 'journalist', they have also fallen into the trap of the authorities.

Some people are running a fraud business in the name of journalists. - Shiv Village, former president, Nepal Journalist Federation Last Thursday, the Federation of Nepalese Journalists Nuwakot published  Look at the release .  In which it is mentioned that the 'journalist' has submitted a bill to the municipality by publishing advertisements without the permission of the local level. According to the federation, an online media operating from Nuwakot printed advertisements and submitted bills illegally without the permission of Panchkanya Rural Municipality in Nuwakot. 

According to Hiradhan Rai, chief administrative officer of the rural municipality, an online media called Nuwakot Express submitted a bill of 500,000 rupees on May 29 without taking permission from the municipality. We did not even ask him to publish advertisements. He has printed this," said Rai, the chief administrative officer, "suddenly a bill of 5 lakhs came for a matter of no mention. How can that be paid?'

The editor/publisher of the online newspaper, Umesh Khanal, claimed that he had published the advertisement on the advice of the rural municipality. I printed the advertisement in agreement with the village. But now you are saying 'no',' he said, 'there was no written agreement. Earlier I used to print ads. But the payment has not been made since the previous year.''

After the bill was not paid for a long time, the media wrote the news under the title ' This is how irregularity happens in Panchkanya '. The news published with the photograph of Rai, the chief administrative officer of the village council and the chairman of the council, is based on the report issued by the Auditor General's Office in 2080/81. But the amount of irregularity mentioned in the report is more than that mentioned in the news .

I came to this municipality only from this financial year (2082/83). By adding my photo to the previous year's irregularities and writing the news, his malice is clear. Chief administrator Rai said, "We did not pay him as there was no basis". That's why he wrote false news against Tej Bahadur Tamang, chairman of the rural municipality, and me (chief administrator).' Khanal, the owner of

media, claims that Rai made a wrong interpretation. He said, "I gave the bill for the money in May." Why write the news now? They have misunderstood. I can write the news at any time! He did not pick up when I called to get a response.' 

Nuwakot is not the first district where such a problem has been publicized. Even in Dhading, there was a public incident of some media outlets publishing advertisements by themselves. Sitaram Adhikari, the editor of Kandara Samachar dotcom and Anil Kumar Nepali, the editor of Bagmati Kalam dotcom, who is also the president of Nepal Journalist Federation Dhading, published advertisements without permission. Siddelekh Rural Municipality said. 

Parshuram Khatiwada, chairman of the municipality, said that without taking any permission from Kantipur, they submitted a bill of 20/20,000 to the municipality by publishing advertisements. The president officer of Nepal Journalist Federation Dhading also admitted that he submitted the bill based on verbal agreement with the municipality. The official said, "We have submitted the bill after verbal agreement". There is no written agreement to publish the advertisement. We submit the same bill to all municipalities.'  Anil Kumar, director and editor of

Bagmati Kalam.com , also said that there was an agreement to print the advertisement verbally. Dhading does not have a written agreement with any media. We are going to submit the bill to all the municipalities in the same way,' said Anil Kumar, 'He has withheld the money out of revenge on us.' The chairman of the municipality said that after the bill was not paid for a long time, they wrote a news article against the village council. Khatiwada said, "We said that we will arrange the process and pay in some time." You started 'blackmailing' me by writing news about things that were not happening.' The meeting decided to adjust the school according to the Community School Adjustment and Position Matching Procedure 2082. According to the municipality, it was decided to make adjustments on the basis of geographic difficulty, schools with no students, etc., in order to reduce unnecessary expenses from the national budget. 

But Bagmati Kalam, Dhading News and other media published the news by misinterpreting the decision. They published the news saying that the school which was not being closed was also closed . The school also issued a statement regarding their news. The chairman of the village has accused them of publishing false news in order to bargain.  It is the responsibility of the journalist to raise questions against irregularities at the local level and write news. But looking at these incidents in Nuwakot and Dhading, it seems that the media has been used as a bargaining tool for self-interest. Breaking the news is against journalistic code of ethics . But what is even more terrifying is the fact that in both cases, journalists print advertisements and submit bills.

The graph of incidents of 'journalists' in the circle of authority

printing voluntary advertisements and making financial transactions under the same guise has been increasing recently . According to Nirmala Sharma, president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, journalists print advertisements voluntarily and financial transactions against the code of conduct have increased.

Sharma said, "When going to the local level, such complaints have increased a lot." Employees of the local level should be given to whom? It has shown our level . Don't distribute money to journalists like that  There is no option but to remind them.' But the federation does not have any accurate statistics about how many such incidents there are and what kind of trend has been observed in it.

In some cases of non-transparent financial transactions between the local level and journalists, the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission has also noticed. Corruption cases have been filed against some journalists who illegally took money from the local level. According to the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission, corruption cases have been filed against 10 journalists in various cases in the last five months alone.
On 26th of June last, Ramji Bagale, Editor of Janaswal Rashtriya Daily, Rupendra Patel, Publisher of Tarai Post and Omprakash Yadav, Representative of Tarai Post, were also filed a case of corruption. According to the authority, they (media registered in the case) took payment without publishing the advertisement.

In the press statement released by the authority, it is said, 'It has been found that 1 lakh 72 thousand 825 was paid to Janaswal Rashtriya Daily, 39 thousand 400 to Tarai Express and 2 lakh 12 thousand 225 rupees to Tarai Post.' Only 3 days before that, ie on May 23, the former chairman of Ramechhap Journalist Federation Tika Bhatt was accused of corruption.

According to the authorities, Bhatt used to threaten government employees and extort money under the guise of a journalist. Recently, he was working as a temporary Nasu in Manthali Nagar Development Committee of Ramechhap. While in public office, Bhatt concealed his identity and worked as Ramechhap correspondent of Kantipur daily.

Kantipur Publications removed him two years ago after receiving a complaint against him.

Similarly, on June 20, the authority filed a case against Bhushan Kumar Singh, founder of Times Republic Media Pvt. Ltd., Ravi Aryal, director of Dutch Media Pvt. Ltd., and Krishna Bahadur Karki, managing director of Prabhav Rashtriya Dainik, on charges of taking payment without publishing the information.

Tilathi Koiladi Village Police of Saptari is accused of inviting bids for 4 different contracts of 2079/080 and taking payment of 2 lakh 16 thousand 410 rupees without printing notice of purchase intention. Even on Baisakh 23, without publishing the same information  An indictment was filed against journalist Navraj Niraula for taking payment. A corruption case was filed against Niroula, director of Nepal Media House Pvt. Ltd., on the charge of taking payment of Rs. In the same month, on the 9th of Baisakh, a corruption case was registered against the then registrar of the Madhesh Pradesh Media Council, Kamal Kumar Upadhyay. He was suspended soon after the case was registered.

According to the authority, Upadhyay is accused of taking 3 lakh 53 thousand 550 payments without publishing the tender notice for the contracts conducted by Pacharuta municipality and keeping only one copy in the records. He has been convicted of this. 

Similarly, on March 12th of the previous year, a case of corruption was also registered against Brijkumar Yadav, the editor-in-chief of Janakpur Today National Daily and the chairman of Janakpur Today Media Group Pvt. Ltd. According to the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission, Yadav concealed the notice of tender invitation and acceptance of the tender of Bateshwar rural municipality in Dhanusha in the financial year 2076/2077 and 644 thousand 1  A hundred rupees were taken as payment. 

'Journalism in a dangerous mode'

Journalism professor Ramakrishna Regmi said that it is a very worrying issue that the body that questions is being questioned to make it responsible. According to Professor Regmi, writing false news for advertisement is a distorted form of journalism. Journalists have the right to ask for advertisements. And the advertiser also has his own right to give or not. That's why we get to ask for ads. But writing false news because there is no advertisement is a distorted form of journalism," he said.

Writing false news because the advertisement is not found is a distorted form of journalism-Professor Ramakrishna Regmi

Journalism has gone into a very dangerous spiral due to such activities. He said, "By now, we have reached the 'danger' mode." If we cross together, we will cross. If not, we will have a very big accident.' He says that this situation has come about because the journalists themselves are not responsible.

President of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists Sharma said that recently such activities contrary to journalistic code of conduct have been increasing . Sharma argues that it is wrong to take payment from the local level in this way, and the media has become a bargaining tool at the local level. "When going to the local level, there have been many such complaints." This is against journalistic code of conduct . This has become a serious problem for us as well,' said Sharma, 'some media have become a bargaining tool at the local level . This is a challenging topic.'

Similarly, Shiv Village, former president of Nepal Journalist Federation, also says that journalists are becoming discredited by such activities. According to the villagers, such people are running a fraudulent business in the name of journalism. The villager said, "Whatever such activities have been done in the name of journalism, all of them are against the journalistic code of conduct." We cannot call that journalism. Some people are running fraudulent business in the name of journalists . These should be brought under legal action immediately.'  How to fix

?

Professor Regmi says that journalists should be responsible for overcoming such a situation. According to him, together with journalists, media organizations, advertisers and the government also need to see it with special priority. "The job of a journalist is not to ask for advertisements, it is to report". For that, media organizations should give responsibility to the legislature," Professor Regmi said, "advertisers should also coordinate with journalists. We should not show such arrogance that the media is working for us.' Shiv Village, the former president of federation, also stressed on the need to make the advertising market transparent. Our journalists also have their own sorrows. Even if the public welfare advertisement provided by the state reached their hands, it would be very less," he added, "but more than half of the public welfare advertisement is in a state of confusion." 

According to Professor Regmi, the state should also make a certain policy on what kind of media and how much rate to advertise. He said, "If the state divides the media with so much readership into so many advertisements from the local level, such problems can be solved." 
Similarly, Kundan Aryal, Head of Tribhuvan University Mass Communication and Journalism Department, says that such activities should be exposed at the local level. According to him, how are some journalists collecting money? All of them should be demolished by the local level. This issue should be broken by the local level. Then the regulatory bodies should work on it with interest .'