Journalists Seek Legal Action to Secure Rights in Nepal

January 30, 2012

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) extends its support to the effort by Nepali colleagues to secure their rights through legal action.

The Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), an IFJ affiliate, on January 26 filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of Nepal seeking a direction to government to fully implement the intent and regulations of the Working Journalists’ Act in state-owned media organisations.

Despite the law’s clear mandate in favour of decent wages and working conditions for journalists, state-owned media enterprises in Nepal have been conspicuous in their default on these requirements. The media organisations named in the FNJ petition are the broadcasters Radio Nepal and Nepal Television, the newspaper publisher Gorkhapatra Corporation, the news agency Rastriya Samachar Samiti, and the Office of the Press Registrar.

According to FNJ President Shiva Gaunle and counsel Bhakti Ram Ghimire, the intervention of the country’s highest court has been sought to enforce minimal compliance with the laws of the land. The writ petition in the Supreme Court states that despite the legal stipulation, government owned media organisations have been in continuous default on their obligation to provide letters of appointment to all employees.

The Working Journalists Act stipulates that no more than 15 percent of the journalists in any organisation can be employed on short-term contracts.

The petition states that 45 percent of the journalists working in government owned media houses and 37 percent of the entire community of journalists in Nepal still do not enjoy the minimum salary fixed by a duly empowered committee. Only 14 percent of Nepali journalists have been receiving regular salaries.

The petition also states that government owned media have been encouraging private media houses to disregard all applicable provisions of the law.

“The struggle for decent working conditions by Nepal’s journalists has seen some notable triumphs in recent years, particularly in terms of the legal protection they now enjoy”, said IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park.

“It is regrettable however, that these rights have remained largely on paper. The record of implementation, as reported by an officially mandated inquiry in November 2010, has been disappointing”.

“The Nepali government cannot enforce the Working Journalists Act in good faith when it allows the act to be violated by its own media organisations”.

“The IFJ calls on the government of Nepal to immediately apply the remedies sought by the country’s journalists, without waiting for directions from the Supreme Court”.

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

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ENDS

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