By P.R. Pradhan
The Nepali media is passing through a critical phase. All the big houses misused the media in their personal interests, and thus far, they lost credibility. Today, some of the owners of the corporate media houses are recognized as the blackmailers, who are practicing yellow journalism. After the political change in 1990, a new constitution was introduced. The constitution guaranteed press freedom and businessmen, even those people in smuggling and illegal business, entered the media field. By manipulating political leaders of the day, those involved in illegal business developed a media empire by running print media as well as electronic media – television and FM radios. Nowhere in the world, including in the United States of America, the FM radios allowed to broadcast news, yet in Nepal, all the FM radios broadcast news without government permission. We had even lauded against such a trend in the country but our voices were suppressed.
Several tabloid newspapers played a remarkable role in promoting democracy in the country. Along with the big investment in media, all the established tabloid newspapers were swept away. Currently, all the broadsheet dailies are running at a loss and journalists working there are not getting salaries for months but the media owners are always making money. We came to know from different individuals about big bargaining by the media owner. Even today, different personalities are openly speaking in interviews by naming different media owners demanding money from them and when refused to reward the media owners, the media started to write against them. Different media outlets are directly receiving foreign funding and such funds receiving media’s names are being circulated in social outlets but the government is unable to take action against them. Obviously, those foreign fund recipients are serving the interests of the donor countries.
Currently, Kailash Sirohiya, chairman of the Kantipur Media Group (KMG), which owns Kantipur and Kathmandu Post, Kantipur TV and also Kantipur FM, was taken into police custody on the charge of using suspicious citizenship certificates. This is a criminal case and there is no relation with the news items produced by the media under the KMG. Surprisingly, different international organizations and also some diplomatic missions stood in favor of Sirohiya.
Not odd, due to the biases and partiality maintained by those media houses, they are losing credibility in society and different social networks have emerged very strongly.
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