Bhattarai & Mainali “Sometimes the ink in the pen is removed, sometimes the nib is broken. Sometimes the cover of the pen does not open, sometimes the pen writes something it cannot write everything.” Prateek Pradhan Nagarik, 23 March 2014 KILLING JOURNALISM, SOFTLY Binod Bhattarai Raghu Mainali KILLING JOURNALISM SOFTLY KILLING JOURNALISM SOFTLY Binod Bhattarai Raghu Mainali Copyright © 2014, The Writing Workshop P. Ltd. Alliance for Social Dialogue ISBN: 978-9937-2-8480-6 First published, August 2014 Cover design: Rajesh KC Book design: Chiran Ghimire Alliance for Social Dialogue (ASD) Secretariat Social Science Baha 345 Ramchandra Marg, Battisputali, Kathmandu – 9 GPO Box 25334, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: +977-1-4472807, 4480091 • Fax: 4475215 Email:
[email protected] • www.asd.org.np The Writing Workshop Bakundole, Lalitpur, Nepal Tel: +977-1-5534768 Email:
[email protected] www.thewritingworkshop.com.np Printed in Nepal Rs. 300/- Contents Publisher’s note vii Foreword ix Acknowledgements xiii PART-1: Self-censorship in the Nepali media 1 • Censorship and self-censorship 6 • Censorship and self-censorship in Nepal 17 • 1950-1961: Political transition from Rana rule 20 • 1961-1990: Direct rule by the king 20 • 1990: Democracy, confl ict and self-censorship 23 PART 2: The how and why of self-censorship 33 • Commercial pressures 35 • Political pressures (infl uence) 39 • Editor-reporter relations/trust defi cit 40 • Management arrangements 41 • Lack of professionalism 42 • Safety and security 44 PaRT-3: The self-censorship report 47