#270 28 October - 3 November 2005 16 pages Rs 30 Weekly Internet Poll # 270 Q... Should the political parties participate in municipal and general elections? Total votes:5,012 Press under pressure The crackdown on Kantipur is to show the regime has teeth but it may have bitten off more than it can chew Weekly Internet Poll # 271. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com KUNDA DIXIT Indeed, some of the provisions of appear free but the media gag rule statements by officials that Q... Should news be allowed on FM radios the royal decree, such as hangs like a sword over our nowhere in the world is news in Nepal? he persecution of Kantipur restrictions on cross-ownership, a heads.” Indeed, the sword now allowed on FM has made them a this week may have been the code of conduct for journalists and seems to have fallen on Kantipur laughing stock. The media T royal regime’s way of even the ban on news on FM, were FM as punishment for its fiercely ordinance has also severely showing it means business with its tabled by the elected Deuba critical coverage of the February eroded the credibility of the king’s media control decree but it government three years ago. But a First royal takeover by its sister election announcement. z appears to be having the opposite landmark Supreme Court decision newspapers. effect. in 2002 won FM stations the right But the crackdown has united After the heavy-handed to broadcast news. the media like nothing before. Breaking news midnight break-in on Kantipur FM Journalists and civil society Journalists and activists camped The Supreme Court late Thursday last Friday, the government gave members say it’s the sneaky way outside Kantipur FM on Thursday issued a stay order banning any the station a 24-hour ultimatum to the edict was announced on the as the government’s 4:30 PM government action against Kantipur stop broadcasting news. Targeting eve of Dasain and its draconian deadline for the station to stop FM for allegedly violating the new the country’s most powerful media nature that proves the royal broadcasting news neared. It also Media Ordinance. The order says is obviously a message to the rest regime is acting in bad faith. woke up the seven party alliance, officials must hold off until at least to toe the line or else. Senior officials often point to which is still on Dasain Sunday, when the court will hear numerous petitions against the The regime’s credibility was at critical coverage in the papers to hibernation, to announce a protest ordinance. stake. Three weeks after the prove the press is free. shutdown in the Valley on Friday. promulgation of the media But Shiva Gaunle, vice Of all the provisions in the ordinance on 7 October, radio president of the Federation of ordinance, rights activists say it stations throughout the country had Nepali Journalists, says people is the ban on FM radio news that been openly flouting its provisions. shouldn’t be hoodwinked: “It may is the most illogical. Frequent The royal council of ministers was annoyed about the defiance, insiders told us, and wanted to show that the ordinance had teeth. But the crackdown has gone against domestic public opinion and intensified protests from international media watchdogs and governments. Even US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said his government was “deeply disappointed and concerned” about the “the shocking seizure at gunpoint of radio equipment”. State media and pro- establishment op-ed writers have been justifying the crackdowns, saying the government doesn’t want to control the press, only to “regulate yellow journalism”. ADAPTED FROM WALKLEY 2 EDITORIAL 28 OCTOBER - 3 NOVEMBER 2005 #270 Published by Himalmedia Pvt Ltd, Chief Editor: Kunda Dixit Desk Editor: Marty Logan Design: Kiran Maharjan Web: Bhushan Shilpakar Vicepresident Corporate Affairs: Sneh Sayami Advertising: Sambhu Guragain [email protected] Subscription: Pushparaj Sharma [email protected] Sanchaya Kosh Building, Block A-4th Floor, Lalitpur GPO Box 7251, Kathmandu Tel: 5543333-6, Fax: 5521013 Still silent majority [email protected], www.nepalitimes.com Printed at Jagadamba Press, Hatiban: 5547018 It is silly to deny the person who usurped power NOT IF, BUT WHEN from you the chance to give it back There are only two positive things that could possibly come out of he time has come. The king person and the nation needs the that to happen. A chilling thought the unimaginable horror of the Kashmir earthquake of 8 October. has decided that it was no king to fill that role. So, for the will-not-let-it-happen One is that India and Pakistan see the futility of further conflict in T use ruling without the congratulations Your Majesty, for brigade: where will you be if the that disputed region with nature’s mockery of man-made participation of the people and announcing parliamentary Maoist insurgents decide to join boundaries. Despite easing travel restrictions and allowing phone calls, however, it may have been too much to expect the generals realised that people have moved elections and giving up the ghost the political process and take part on both sides to overcomes decades of hatred that they have on from the time of his father and of the Absolute Monarch. in the elections while you sit on nurtured against each others’ peoples. the first royal takeover of the Without taking much time to the sidelines? Please also The second constructive outcome could be that we in Nepal and democratic process. consider all possibilities we understand that it is just possible elsewhere along the Himalaya learn lessons in disaster already have calls from the that the silent majority may still preparedness, earthquake resistant housing and infrastructure, GUEST COLUMN political parties to boycott the want a benign role for the strict zoning in urban areas, and forward planning for rescue and electoral process, being egged on, monarchy and it may be up to relief. But even here, it is unlikely that the government and people Narayan B Thapa of Nepal have heeded the warning. no less, by the ‘civil society’. It the political parties truly We had our own wake-up call on the afternoon of 15 January seems petulant and silly to deny representing the people to wish 1934 when at least 10,000 people were killed in a few minutes. At It is true that a brake to the the person who usurped power to keep it that way. that time, the population of the Kathmandu Valley may have been downward slide in governance from you the chance to give it The Maoist insurgents have 150,000. Today, it is two million. Even without taking into account was urgent as part of the checks back. As a citizen and voter, my brought in undoubted change in the higher death toll due to unsafe concrete housing, if the same and balances in democracy (and suggestion to the political parties the way people think of proportion of people were killed in the next quake as in 1934 we should have provision for would be to accept the challenge themselves in the backwaters of Kathmandu would suffer at least 200,000 deaths. Historical records show that Central Nepal witnesses a major similar checks in the future). But of the elections because that is Nepal. Most of it is the result of 8 magnitude earthquake every 75 years or so, which would mean to allow all and sundry to have a what political parties do: take terror of course but the remotest another Big One is due any day. But more frightening is the seismic stab at ruling the country was part in periodic elections. and the most deprived areas have gap between Dehradun and Pokhara, where there hasn’t been a totally out of tune with the times. Of course, you should been put on the map, so to speak. major earthquake for at lest 400 years and where there is enough People will appreciate King demand certain conditions for No future political force in this energy stored in the colliding tectonic plates to unleash one of a Gyanendra as someone who will fair elections in the present messy country will be able to ignore their magnitude of 9 or more any day. What that would do to Pokhara, feel the pulse of the country by situation. Off the top of my head plight and that is good. But there Butwal, Nepalganj, Surkhet and Kathmandu would be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. continuing to wade amongst the these might include an electoral is nothing to suggest that the We can’t prevent earthquakes, we can’t even predict them. masses, gathering the proven doers government under a neutral non- Maoists will be the ones to serve Earthquakes don’t kill people, weak houses and bad planning do. It in the community around him to political person as prime these people. Communist utopia may be asking too much to expect a government that can’t even brainstorm about the future of minister, a free press, is just that: not achievable, solve minor problems of food supply, health care and education to Nepal, involving himself in the international observers, a strict and especially not by the prepare for a future calamity. But it may just take something like social sector and above all, code of conduct for the security methods adopted. Kashmir to warn us of what is certain to happen in Kathmandu very providing the nation with forces and other desirable One has the distinct soon. It’s not if but when. Even if we can’t save those crushed to death under buildings, inspirational leadership.