NEPAL: House passes amendment bill on Working Journalist Act

New bill does not allow a media outlet to hire more than 15 percent of its journalists on a contractual basis

Nepal News
Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The legislature parliament passed the amendment bill on the Working Journalist Act on Wednesday.

A meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for Environment, Communication and Technology held at Singh Durbar, Tuesday, Aug 08 07. The committee finalised the Working Journalists Bill prepared by MP Raghuji Pant.

The second sitting of the House passed the bill, which was tabled in the first sitting. Earlier today, a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for Environment, Communication and Technology had okayed the bill prepared by a taskforce led by CPN (UML) lawmaker Raghuji Pant.

According to the newly enacted bill, media houses will not be allowed to keep more than 15 percent of the working journalists on contract basis, who must be entitled to provident fund and other facilities being given to permanent journalists.

Likewise, media houses will have to cover the medical treatment and provide compensation to working journalists in case of accident while on duty.

A 13-member committee will be formed to determine minimum salary of working journalists. The committee will have representatives from different government departments, the Federation of Nepalese Journalists and three working journalists.

There are provisions in the bill that require media houses to spend a minimum of 1 percent of their annual income for capacity building activities of the journalists. Media houses failing to follow these provisions will be deprived of government advertisement and may even face ban on imports from abroad.

Upon adoption of the bill by the parliamentary committee, lawmaker Pant, a former journalist, said the bill seeks to give job guarantee to working journalists. He also suggested review on the implementation of the bill in every two years.

Date Posted: 8/8/2007