Political and press freedoms interconnected: Minister Sharma

Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, has said political autonomy and the Press freedom are interrelated.

In her address to a programme jointly organised here today by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and TU, Central Department of Mass Communications and Journalism on the occasion of the 30th World Press Freedom Day, the Minister said the press freedom was not achievable in absence of political freedom. The event was supported by the UNESCO.

Minister Sharma, also the government Spokesperson, said, “Press freedom is achievable only through strengthening of the democratic federal republic. It may sound strange for the present generation, but it is true that people had to sacrifice lives for the freedom of expression.”

As the Minister said, it is punishable to violate the citizen’s rights in a democratic federal system and the status of the press freedom is better compared to the past. “Issues of press freedom and the freedom of expression are not just the concerns of media, they matter to each citizen, instead.”

Describing the free Press and the freedom of expression and opinion as the lifeline of democracy, the Minister reminded that ‘freedom’ is the essence of the Nepal’s constitution as it has got its space in the preliminary of the country’s main law. According to the Minister, the incumbent government is committed to enforcing the constitutional and legal rights of the free Press freedom.

Also speaking on the occasion, NHRC Top Bahadur Magar, said the NHRC was effortful to promote press freedom and other rights of citizens guaranteed by the laws.

FNJ Chair Bipul Pokhrel said, “Though the situation of press freedom is not disappointing, journalists are not fully secured and more actions are needed to promote their safety.”

It may be noted that this year the World Press Freedom Day which is observed on May 3 each year was celebrated with the theme of ‘Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as driver for all other Human Rights which highlights the crucial role of freedom of expression in safeguarding and advancing other human rights.

Presenting a working paper, Chairperson of Press Council Nepal, Bal Krishna Basnet, mentioned that journalists are good human rights defenders and narrated the incident that journalists had to come to street in the past saying press freedom could not be achieved without political freedom.

Commenting on the Basnet’s working paper, FNJ General-Secretary Roshan Puri and Chairperson of Nepal Voters’ Rights Forum, Bhakta Bishwokarma, said the role played by the FNJ in implementation of laws for independent press was clear.

Similarly, UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, Hanna Singer Hamdy said Nepal is ahead in South Asia in terms of press freedom and thoughts and freedom of expression, human rights and democracy are complementary with each other.

Likewise, representative of UNESCO Representative to Nepal, Head of Office, Michael Croft, said although free freedom is strong in Nepal in overall, now there is a challenge how to protect press freedom from hate speech, misinformation and disinformation.

The United Nations at the initiative of UNESCO observes May 3 as the World Press Freedom Day every year since 1993.

As per the study carried out by UNESCO from 2016-2021, 85 per cent world’s population experienced a decline in press freedom in their country and 455 journalists were killed during five years.