Parliament passes Advisement Bill-2076; Govt registers Media Council Bill at National Assembly

Kathmandu / August 29: The meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) has endorsed the Advertisement (Regulatory) Bill-2076 BS on Thursday by a thumping majority.

Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota had presented the Bill in the House. Responding to the queries raised by the parliamentarians, Minister Baskota said that the new bill would provide advertisements issued in public interest to all the media proportionally. Minister Baskota clarified that it was false information that the government would only provide the advertisements to the media favoring the government.

“It was misleading information that government-issued advertisements would be only given to the media glorifying the government. We won’t discriminate among the media. We will prove it by action,” he pledged.

Expressing his confidence that the Bill would ensure transparency regarding which organization spends how much money in advertisement and would curb corruption as well as tax evasion. The bill relating to the advertisement is first-of-its-kind in Nepal and it also includes a proportional advertisement system and clean feed. He informed that the media houses registered with the concerned government agency would be provided incentives.

Pushpa Bhusal, Divya Mani Raj Bhandari and Renuka Gurung among other parliamentarians had raised their concern over the bill. Likewise, parliamentarian Som Prasad Pandey presented the report of the parliamentary committee for Industry, Commerce and Consumer Welfare Committee on the Industrial Enterprise Bill on the behalf of the Committee’s President Bimal Prasad Shrivastav. The next meeting of the HoR is scheduled for September 4.

Govt registers Media Council Bill at National Assembly

Meanwhile, the government has registered Media Council Bill 2075 at the National Assembly on Thursday.

Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Baskota tabled the bill at the Upper House of the Federal Parliament this afternoon seeking its endorsement.

On the occasion, the minister said the proposed bill, if endorsed, would allow the Press Council Nepal to monitor the media.

Minister Baskota vowed to make changes to some provisions of the proposed bill after holding consultation with the concerned stakeholders.

After the minister’s commitment to bring changes to the proposed law, the lawmakers of the Nepali Congress withdrew their notice of protest.

The media fraternity has been strongly opposing some of the provisions of the bill such as the imposition of a fine of up to one million rupees on journalists if they are found guilty of damaging someone’s reputation. Experts argue that the proposed bill aims to curtail press freedom.

If the bill is endorsed from the parliament, it allows Nepal Media Council to replace the existing Press Council Nepal to curtail press freedom, instead of empowering it.

Next meeting of the National Assembly has been scheduled for 11 am on Friday.