Nepal Press Union (NPU) has demanded that the Rastriya Samachar (RSS) – the state-owned news agency – provide free news service to self-employment based media with small investment. A central working committee meeting of the NPU held in Bhaktapur on Tuesday demanded that the RSS being run with government investment provide free of cost services to small-scale self-employed media that are struggling to run their outlet due to economic crisis facing the country.
Likewise, the NPU meeting decided to conduct conventions in its chapter which are yet to do such events within June 20, informed its general-secretary Dilip Paudel. The meeting has decided to form a training curriculum preparation committee under the coordination of former chairperson of the Federation of Nepali Journalists Dharmendra Jha for the purpose of conducting journalism training. Likewise, it has decided to form another committee to prepare a list of trainers under the coordination of NPU Vice-President Jeewan Bhandari. NPU said it has been closely observing the membership cleansing campaign of the FNJ and will also support the move.
But, the NPU would protest if membership renewal was denied based on the faith and opinion, the press union asserted. The trade union of the democratic journalists and media workers has also decided to pile pressure for the implementation of Working Journalist Act and minimum wages. The organization has demanded that the government not formulate any policy, rule, law and regulations in a way to contravene the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of press, expression and opinion.
