Kathmandu, January 21: Members of the Legislation Management Committee of the National Assembly have agreed to remove the provision relating to punishment in the proposed Nepal Media Council Bill. The lawmakers made such agreement during clause-wise discussions over the bill yesterday.
Committee Chair Parshuram Meghi Gurung told RSS that the Council is a regulatory body and it will oversee whether or not the code of conduct was implemented, not the matter of punishment. “The provision of punishment proposed in the bill has been removed,” he confirmed.
Conducting monitoring and assessment of the media houses, making them aware, scrapping the certificate and removing them from the registration list would be given to the council adding that discussions are ongoing to ensure provision to advance remedial process from other Acts in case of huge loss. The committee is in the final stage to prepare its report by incorporating the comments from those proposing amendments and the government.
Earlier, the officials of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology had asked the National Assembly members not to construe the issue in a different way since the Bill was unveiled aiming at making the press responsible and accountable. Secretary at the Ministry Dipak Subedi said that the bill was brought with the move to make not only the editors and reporters accountable but also the concerned media house.
