Editorial»
Port of call
JUN 24 -
I n a week’s time, Nepal could make history, and not a pleasant one. That is the timeline when the current stock of newsprint for Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post run out. The publications of the first private-sector broadsheets may be stopped for the first time in their 17-year history. The papers’ lifeline—1,000 metric tonnes of newsprint—languish at Kolkata port for ‘investigations’ for a month.
We say with deep regret that the stoppage of tariff-in-transit is in direct contravention of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that protects the landlocked countries’ unhindered access to sea through transit states and against the spirit of the existing Treaty of Transit between India and Nepal.
The inordinate delay in the release of the consignment was clearly avoidable. And the longer it continues, the greater the risk that it will impinge on people’s right to information. Realising the gravity of the matter, rights bodies, political party leaders, parliamentarians and entrepreneurs have been voicing their serious concern on the matter and have urged the government to resolve the issue at the earliest. The National Human Rights Commission has termed the hold-up at Kolkata “a violation of people’s right to information.” The lawmakers, in a parliamentary session on Wednesday, correctly argued that the move is an infringement of Nepal’s natural right to the sea and violation of the bilateral trade treaty.
The gravity of the issue at hand cannot be overemphasised. Other than the reasons mentioned above, the failure to replenish Kantipur’s stock will deal a devastating blow for the enterprise of free media in the country. Since their first publication in 1993, The Post and Kantipur have stood as a bulwark of democracy and a trendsetter in Nepali journalism. Back then, it was hard to imagine a private media house establishing a foothold on Nepali soil, let alone flourishing as a commercial enterprise. Today, the newspapers, Kantipur especially, have become a part of Nepali life through their tireless championing of the cause of democracy and free and fearless journalism—with their share of failings.
Many Nepalis would readily agree that the papers are more than a commercial enterprise. They are the voice of the people. Any attempt to silence them portends a dangerous trend at reversing the democratic gains they helped secure and consolidate—again and again.
We call on the government, and indeed Prime Minister Nepal, to see to it that the torch of free media keeps burning. We would like to see the prime minister own up responsibility to protect the interest of these champions of Nepali democratic movement. At the risk of sounding arrogant, we would like to state that the newspapers, the torchbearers, deserve nothing less.
Posted on: 2010-06-25 07:55
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