A cabinet meeting held at the official residence of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, just before he flew to Brazil Monday afternoon, took a decision to this effect, according to Minister for Children, Women and Social Welfare Badri Neupane. [break]
The government had a few days ago sought clarification from Acting General Manager Dhital and Director Rajendra Dev Acharya about the live coverage of the protest rally organized by various 22 opposition parties on June 8 and the broadcast of news related to protests against the government´s move to bring ordinances without political consensus.
Dhital and Acharya were even summoned by the prime minister to furnish clarifications.
According to the source, Minister for Information and Communications Raj Kishor Yadav had initially objected to the decision to broadcast live the opposition rally but relented after the NTV management argued that the channel should exercise fairness given that it had earlier broadcast live an interaction of the ruling parties.
Issuing a press statement, Federation of Nepalese Journalists, NTV Chapter, has denounced the cabinet´s decision. The chapter has also demanded that the government withdraw the decision to remove Dhital, arguing that any move to control independent and professional journalism erodes the credibility of state-owned channel.
Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) also issued a separate statement urging the government to withdraw its decision.
The statement sought to remind the government about FNJ´s stance that a democratic government should not run media. The government should create a conducive environment to run NTV in a free and fair manner without any external interferences, the statement said.
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