Kathmandu, March 29
Minister for Information and Communications, Sher Dhan Rai, has pledged to create an environment where journalists can make a living by pursuing journalism. Minister Rai said this while addressing an interaction that Federation of Nepali Journalists (Kailali) had organised to mark FNJ’s 61st birth anniversary.
Minister Rai said: We need to create an environment in which journalists can earn their livelihoods by pursuing journalism.
Rai stressed the need for development of professional journalism. Non-implementation of the Working Journalists’ Act has increased journalists’ frustration, he noted, pledging to implement the Act in its letter and spirit and introducing a regulation for management of online media.
Rai pledged to initiate a process for classification of media houses, set standards for journalists and issue them licences, adding that media houses have option sopen to merge as per the need.
The mushrooming of media houses — the tendency of establishing a huge number of media houses — must stop, he said, adding: Only then will development of professional journalism be possible.
