Govt. to implement journalists Code of Conduct

Publish date : 28 January, 2016

Kathmandu, Jan 28: The government is going to strongly implement the Journalists Code of Conduct.

At an interaction organised to collect suggestions for draft of the Child Sensitive Journalism Guidelines here today, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare, CP Mainali, and Minister for Information and Communications, Sherdhan Rai, said that the code of conduct would be strongly implemented.

DPM Mainali expressed the commitment that the Ministry would carry out necessary homework and to provide support for the strong implementation of the code of conduct to take journalism ahead in a new course as the country has entered into a new era after the promulgation of the new constitution.

He expressed the view that there should be no negligenc for the implementation of the code of conduct as it takes the reliability and effectiveness of journalism.

Similarly, Communications Minister Rai said that the implementation situation of the code of conduct was very weak in the country. Stating that capacity of the Press Council is going to be developed for the effective regulation and implementation of it, Minister Rai said Thursday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers has made special arrangement of Rs 14 million to the Council and strong monitoring would be carried out whether or not the code of conduct was implemented.

He further said that making journalism profession dignified, effective and accountable was the government’s wish.

Member of the committee formed to formulate the code of conduct, Kundan Aryal said that the draft was prepared after holding discussions and interactions for a year.

Journalists— Babita Basnet, Suman Kharel and Prakash Rimal, among others commented on 11-point Guidelines in the interaction.
President of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, Dr Mahendra Bista, Director General at the Department of Information, Laxmibilas Koirala, Executive Director at the Central Child Welfare Board, Tarak Dhimal, among others talked about the Guidelines.