Press Union calls for withdrawing ‘Social Media Bill, 2081’

Kathmandu, Feb 20: Nepal Press Union (NPU) has demanded the government withdraw the ‘Social Media Bill, 2081’.

The national conference of the NPU province and chapter presidents held on February 17-19, hosted by the Union Central Committee, put forward the demand issuing a 12-point declaration.

The declaration issued after wrapping up the conference has mentioned that NPU has serious reservation on some provisions specified in the bill.

The Press Union has called for the government to consult with the stakeholders on the provisions concerning the freedom of the press and opinion. In order to ensure the freedom, the media trade union demanded the withdrawal of the bill.

The 12-point declaration was released after holding intensive discussions on the organisational activities of NPU, issues of working journalists and journalism, professional security of journalists, freedom of press and expression, technology-enabled challenges to the media sector and media laws.

General Secretary Dilip Poudel presented the organizational report and senior vice-president and disciplinary department coordinator Prem KC presented the report of the disciplinary committee.

The union has also announced to fully implement the action plan to be prepared by the central committee based on the recommendations of the conference.

Drawing the attention of the government and media houses to the issues related to the Working Journalists Act, implementation of minimum wages, regular payment of wages, professional, physical, economic and social security of journalists, it has also announced that all the structures of the union would carry out a pressure campaign as per the need.

The Union has also drawn its attention to the laws and guidelines framed by various levels of government in a way to curb the right to freedom of press and expression.

The NPU has strongly demanded all three-tier governments to formulate policies, rules, acts, laws and regulations related to communication to ensure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

“Print, television and radio are on the verge of shutdown as the problems seen in the country’s economy have affected the advertising market”, reads the declaration.

The conference of province and chapter presidents calls for increasing ad amount by including online media in public welfare advertisements by streamlining the proportional advertisement distribution system when the trend of opening online media has become widespread, it is noted.

All chapter and province committees have pledged to implement programmes including capacity development, vocational training in journalism, programmes to support journalists in trouble, insurance, social security, incentives and writing fellowships to make effective the ‘Press Union with Journalists’ campaign announced by the central committee.

“The statute amendment process will be initiated to make the Press Union Statute 2048 (Sixth Amendment-2079) timely and practical. The Union is going to organize ‘Lomanthang International Media Summit’ in the month of Chaitra (March-April) to enable environment to follow international media practice in Nepal.

The NPU has urged the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) to immediately initiate a process of retaining membership of journalists who have been excluded from its membership.