Nathaniel
Global Integrity contributor Ghanashyam Ojha starts a fire -- literally -- with a story exposing the financial workings of the Young Communist League in Nepal.
The report reads:"Shoe factories provide us shoes and various other industrialists provide food and other items. Even some hoteliers here willingly give us a monthly levy ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000. So we have not faced any financial problems so far" says Gurung, former company commander of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Third Division in Chitwan...
Ojha reports that the publication of his story drew immediate attention from the government and the YCL both. In an email to Global Integrity, Ojha writes:
The locals in Kapan refuse to talk to the press about what they think of YCL activities in their vicinity. "I don't want to speak about it," a local hotelier told the Post, refusing to reveal his identity.This week I wrote a story on the economy of Young Communist League (YCL), a youth wing of Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists. The economy of YCL was never reported and it exploded right after it was published in The Kathmandu Post and Kantipur daily, two largest daily newspapers in Nepal.
The same evening, when the story was published, police raided offices of YCL in Kathmandu. The YCL burnt tyres, called a brief strike in Kathmandu. I also received threats in a very polite way by some YCL leaders. I was pleased to have been successful to expose such a sensational issue in Nepal.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Nepal: Maoists Collecting "Voluntary" Taxes, Goverment Not Happy
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Nepal's Media Freedoms: Lost in Transition?
Journalists in Nepal are currently under intense pressure, a distressing departure from the generally positive transition from absolute rule to democracy.
King Gyanendra led a brutal campaign to censor the media after dismissing the elected government in February 2005. Weeks of public protest forced Gyanendra to abdicate in April 2006, leading to the reinstatement of the legislature and other democratic institutions. Yet despite the welcome return of popular rule, Nepalese journalists continue to face threats and harassment today.
In June of this year, two newspapers were forced to suspend publication because of pressure from a trade union affiliated with the Maoist party, which now shares power in Parliament. This was widely perceived as a move to influence media coverage of the party. According to IFEX, an international coalition of media monitors, more than 116 journalists have been threatened, abducted, or harassed in the first six months of 2007 alone despite the passage of the Right to Information Act. Assessments by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Sans Frontieres report similar findings.
These reports illustrate the systemic governance challenges facing Nepal, challenges highlighted in the 2006 Global Integrity Report, which assessed more than 40 countries across nearly 300 indicators of good governance and anti-corruption mechanisms. Nepal earned a "Very Weak" overall rating, in part due to serious problems with freedom of the press. Despite a "Very Weak" rating in the Media sub-category, Nepal fared better in that area than its South Asian neighbor Pakistan and ten other countries covered in the assessment. However, the Global Integrity data also reveals that Nepal, along with such countries as Armenia, Brazil, Egypt, Kenya, Philippines, and Tajikistan, faces particular problems when it comes to protecting journalists from harassment, an assessment the more recent IFEX, CPJ and RSF reports confirm. Additionally, despite the restoration of free speech, Nepalese media is still heavily politicized.
Nepal is at a critical crossroads. As investigative reporter Hari Bahadur Thapa observes in The Corruption Notebooks 2006, while there is "cause for hope" with the reinstatement of Parliament, the "newly restored government has its hands full" when it comes to combating corruption in the political and economic spheres.
Government support for the rights of journalists and press freedom is an important step in the broader process of consolidating democracy and good governance. To date, this step remains to be fully taken.
-- Raymond June (October 1, 2007)
Global Integrity Report, Nepal:
Intro, Scorecard, Reporter's Notebook, Timeline, Factsheet
Country Profile:
BBC News, Nepal Country Profile
Related Readings:
Committee to Protect Journalists, Nepal Archive
Mahendra Lawoti, Contentious Politics and Democratization in Nepal (amazon.com)
IFEX, Nepal Alerts
PBS Frontline, Nepal: Caught in the People's War
Reporters Sans Frontieres, Nepal Annual Report
Related Organization:
Nepal Press Freedom