KATHMANDU, Sept 23: Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties have objected to the government's decision to reduce funding for public welfare advertisements, arguing that the move has further strained Nepal's struggling media sector.
Speaking during the zero hour of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Buddhi Prasad Pant said it was unfortunate that journalists, often regarded as the country's "fourth estate," had been forced to take to the streets to demand their professional rights and legitimate concerns.
Pant highlighted three major issues affecting the media sector: cuts in public welfare advertising funds allocated to self-employed and small-investment media outlets, what he described as an "unusual" increase in news service fees charged by the Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) to media organizations, and the failure to ensure fair distribution of government advertisements among private media outlets and community radio stations.
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He said such policies and decisions had pushed independent media—an essential pillar of democracy—deeper into crisis rather than strengthening it. Through the Speaker, Pant urged the government to immediately engage in dialogue with the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and other stakeholders and address their legitimate demands without delay.
Similarly, Aren Rai, chief whip of the opposition Shram Sanskriti Party, also criticized the government's decision to reduce public welfare advertising funds allocated to print media.
Addressing the House on Sept. 17, Rai said the Ministry of Information and Communications' decision to reduce the allocation through a procedural arrangement, despite provisions in the current fiscal year's budget, undermined the authority and sovereignty of Parliament.
The government decided on Aug. 21 to reduce the amount allocated for public welfare advertisements through a new procedure. Rai urged the government to increase, rather than cut, the allocation in recognition of the media's role in strengthening democracy, safeguarding press freedom and ensuring citizens' right to information.
Meanwhile, the FNJ has expressed strong opposition to what it described as a significant reduction in payments to newspapers and other media outlets, as well as a discriminatory policy introduced through the Ministry of Information and Communications' Public Welfare Advertisement Publication (First Amendment) Procedure, 2083 BS.
