Challenges to Press Freedom

Bhanu Bhakta Acharya

Press freedom is cornerstone in building strong democracies, enhancing good governance, and promoting justice and peace. It plays a vital role in the transformation of society by reshaping its political, economic and social aspects to defend and promote freedom of expression.

Along with the countries around the world, Nepal is celebrating the 21st World Press Freedom Day with the slogan Safe to speak: Securing freedom of expression in all media emphasises the safety of journalists and media workers, combating impunity of crimes against freedom of expression, and securing a free and open Internet are the key themes included in the slogan, which are very contextual in the Nepalese press freedom scenario. In the context of high level of political vulnerability, after the failure of the Constituent Assembly, and uncertain election, the relevance of the theme is significantly contextual to our socio-political milieu.

Over the past two decades, the world has experienced the revolution in newsrooms, such as the rise of the 24/7 news cycle, online journalism, blogs, social networks, podcasts, webcasts and citizen journalism. Social media, notably Facebook and Twitter, have provided a wide platform to democratic voices against the decades old totalitarian and repressive regimes. However, these developments have not yet opened the way to greater respect for basic freedoms because new threats to freedom of expression keep emerging in the digital news environment. Moreover, the challenges of press freedom in Nepal has not been diminished in the period of past one year. Some of the key challenges of press freedom in our context are as follows:

Security of journalists

Nepal ranks 118th position in the international press freedom index by Reporters' Without Borders' stepping down 12 places than previous year. There have been reports of threats, misbehavior, manhandling, physical attacks, detention, harassment and incidents of censorship recorded at different levels during the period of one year. In addition, different interest groups including persons of authority, leaders of political parties, and cadres of armed groups targeted journalists, seized equipments and vandalised their vehicles as an expression of their resentment. However, the perpetrators were rarely brought to justice system since they had strong political back up. This trend rapidly promoted self-censorship among journalists; as a result issues of public importance were seldom reported. Recurring threats, interference in editorial independence, physical attack and blackmailing tactic pushed the country's press freedom scenario into a deep vulnerability.

Protection of news source

It is one of the basic conditions for press freedom. Many countries have clearly mentioned this provision in their legal documents including the constitution. Journalists in Nepal, however, are compelled to divulge the information source during the process of administrative justice or court proceedings. Death threats and other forms of systematic harassment also force them to reveal the sources of information, which is, by profession, every journalist has to keep confidential. Even though, this provision is evidently articulated in the code of conduct for journalists, Nepal has not developed a comprehensive legal framework till date so remains cause of threat to press freedom. Owing to this, the vulnerability of press freedom remained manifested during the period.

Partisan press

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Challenges to Press Freedom