[Reader-list] Radio Sagarmatha and the Crackdown in Nepal

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear All,

Here is an interesting post about the crackdown in Nepal and its 
consequences on media activity. This was posted originally on the Bytes 
for All list. Apologies for cross posting to all those on this list who 
also subscribe to Bytes for All.

regards

Shuddha

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[bytesforall_readers] Radio Sagarmatha & the king of Nepal's 
crack down on politics and news media
Date: 	Wed, 9 Feb 2005 15:46:28 -0700
From: 	George Lessard <media at web.net>
Reply-To: 	bytesforall_readers at yahoogroups.com
To: 	Creative Radio List <creative-radio at yahoogroups.com>
CC: 	L MicroRadio <microradio at lists.riseup.net>, L ICT4Devlopment 
<ict4d-class at dgroups.org>



Nepal's king cracks down on politics and news media

Instead of the usual spicy mix of current affairs and politics, the 
subject of Radio Sagarmatha's talk show on Saturday night was as 
bland as rice. In fact, the subject was rice: the differences, as 
explained by a scientist, between golden, wild and other varieties. 
That was the only topic the independent Nepali FM station felt safe 
to discuss. "Normally I don't do that kind of program," a 31-year-old 
journalist at the station said, laughing nervously as a soldier 
listened. When the soldier - one of six lounging around the station - 
moved off, the smile fell away. "Our hands are tied," the journalist 
said. Six days ago Nepal's king ended the country's 15-year 
experiment with democracy
and took power for himself, imposing a state of emergency and 
suspending a host of civil liberties, including freedom of expression.

[...]

All of the community radio stations that sprang up in the 1990's are 
locked up, playing only music or discussing things like rice. The 
BBC's popular Nepali news service has been stopped, and Netra K. C., 
its reporter in the western city of Nepalganj, has been detained, 
according to human rights activists. Newspapers have been reduced to 
editorializing about safely banal subjects, like the weather or clean 
socks, or resorting to metaphor to make their case.

"The sudden epidemic of tree-felling along Katmandu's streets is 
drastic, misguided and not consonant with the needs of the 
population," began an editorial last week in the weekly Nepali Times. 
It ended: "Because the damage has been done, can we ask the concerned 
authority to promptly correct the move and bring back greenery?"

The paper's editor, Kunda Dixit, said journalists of his generation 
had faced similar restrictions before democracy was introduced. They 
learned then to weigh every word, to write between the lines, he 
said, but in the intervening years grew accustomed to being free.

"I've unlearned how to be guarded," Mr. Dixit said at the end of an 
interview. "If I've said anything subversive, please take it out."

Source: Amy Waldman, The New York Times [requires free registration]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/international/asia/08nepal.html

MULTIMEDIA
Video:  Nepal Bans Criticism of Security Forces
<http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/aponline/20050207_Nepal_0b694098580029abc89de63f8aa5dcd1ed1bc15b_APVIDEO.html> 
[may only be accessible from the main story page]

Radio Sagarmatha
http://www.radiosagarmatha.org/
Making Waves
Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change
RADIO SAGARMATHA
http://www.comminit.com/strategicthinking/pdsmakingwaves/sld-1892.html
Radio Sagarmatha - Nepal
http://www.unites.org/cfapps/WSIS/story.cfm?Sid=11


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-- 
Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Raqs Media Collective)
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054, India
Phone : + 91 11 23960040
Fax :     + 91 11 23943450
E Mail : shuddha at sarai.net
http://www.sarai.net
http://www.raqsmediacollective.net