Ban on FM radio newscasts decreases the media's reach

Guna Raj Luitel says the royal government fears FM radio because of its ability to reach rural communities and inform the greater majority of the Nepalese population

By Guna Raj Luitel
AsiaMedia Contributing Writer

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Ram Chandra Kushbaha, then Minister of State for Information and Communication, inaugurated the country's first ever frequency modulation radio station on November 16, 1995. FM was the latest technology for broadcasting and was very new in the Nepalese context at the time, and the confused state minister mouthed FM as a MF.

During the live broadcast, the staffers at Radio Nepal, the state-run radio station, corrected him--"Sir, not MF. It is FM." He made a conscious attempt at correcting himself. Unfortunately, he mispronounced the acronym 'FM' again and again, all throughout his inaugural speech.

At the time, not only was the minister unaware of the state-of-the-art technology, but Nepalese listeners were also unaware of how important the technology was.

Ten years later, FM radio has turned out to be the most popular means of communication in the country. During the past decade, FM radios gained so much popularity across the length and breadth of the nation that the total number of FM stations now stands at 47. In addition to these 47 stations, there are many more that have been licensed to operate, but have not actually been able to go on the air for various reasons.

A practical example shows how important and efficient FM radio in Nepal can be. Jumla, like other districts in the Karnali region, is far-flung. Even the people in Jumla were benefiting immensely from FM news and current affairs programmes though. Because the region is untouched by any motorable road, reading newspapers on a daily basis is still a distant dream in these remote places. People there wait for weeks before they can get a glimpse of the newspapers from Kathmandu or other regional centres. Before Feb. 1, the people in the region relied on the FM radios to follow the news stories run by the dailies. FM stations would read out the national newspapers to their listeners across the isolated terrain.

In the aftermath of the royal move on Feb. 1, people's fundamental right to information guaranteed by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 has been grossly violated. The state used repressive measures to curb the rights of the Nepalese people. After the coup, the Royal Nepalese Army was deployed in the radio stations and armed soldiers ordered radio personnel to not to broadcast anything but entertainment programmes.

The very next day the ministry of information and communication issued a shameless order barring FM stations from transmitting news.

Why are the rulers so sceptical about FM radios' transmission of news and news-related programmes? The answer to this million-dollar question is directly related to its impact. The country's literacy rate is still just at 54.1 percent who have reading skills above the level of a six-year-old and the transportation systems in some parts of the country continue to be primitive. Thus, the news published in the newspapers does not bother the rulers. But they know that if news finds its way through radio transistors, then they would be in trouble. Hence their FM-radio-weariness. The Feb. 1 royal take over gave them an excuse to gag this effective medium of disseminating information in the name of making the stations responsible.

The irony here is that it is the autocratic rulers of the country who need to be more responsible, not necessary the FM radio stations.

"[FM radio] has the power of disseminating information immediately to the people," says Raghu Mainali, Coordinator of Save Independent Radio Movement (SIRM). "[The FM radio news ban] shows the rulers are not ready to listen to the voices of the people."

Interestingly enough, the governing rules for television and radio are same. The voice of the independent radio has been silenced, but TV stations continue to broadcast news. Though TV is an effective medium for the modern population, it is still a luxury for the Nepalese people who survive on less than one US dollar per day. It is for this reason that radio is the cheapest means of information for the majority of Nepalese people. And by silencing the FM stations, the government has made an attempt to keep the nation in the dark.

Before the royal coup, people walking or working with radio sets slung around them used to be a common sight in the hilly regions of the country. The rulers are ready to put up with newspaper and television news reports against them because of their limited reach. But they are not ready to let radio flourish, which could disturb their lack of care for the masses. They do not want information to flow freely to the people.

This kind of attitude of our rulers is very comparable to the attitude of our rulers before 1950's. The autocratic Rana rulers of our country did not allow the general public to read and write because they thought an educated public would jeopardize their regime. Education was only accessible for the rulers and those they trusted. The same thing is happening more than half a century later. Television and newspapers are accessible for rich, educated and urbanized people, but the ban on FM news has the greatest impact on Nepal's village poor. 

The Nepal government has prevented both the legally operated community radios as well as the privately owned FM radio stations. However, there are some clandestine FM radio stations operated by the rebel Maoists, who are not under government control. And the people in village areas are highly dependent upon such stations. Realizing the gravity of the situation, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged the government to allow FM stations to operate news and current affairs programmes.

CPJ's Apr. 12 statement clearly outlines the situation of the media in the country. It says, " The government's media crackdown began with the pre-planned deployment of armed soldiers and military censors to private media offices all over the country as the king's emergency proclamation was still being broadcast on the morning of February 1. While soldiers and censors have withdrawn, the dramatic February 1 deployment and subsequent official restrictions on media have created a climate of fear and self-censorship among Nepalese journalists. As a result, independent news and information available to the public is greatly reduced; in fact, the only locally broadcast news now available to the public is controlled by the state. In some areas of the country, clandestine and illegal Maoist-run FM radio stations are now the only alternative."

The past elected governments were also unhappy with increasing FM radio impact. They tried to prevent them from broadcasting news. On January 2, 2001, then Minister for Information and communication Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta issued an order to the FM stations not to transmit news based on their own sources. The order was challenged in court, which ruled on Jul. 26, 2001 that stations are free to collect information and broadcast news bulletins.

The Constitution of the Kingdom guarantees full press freedom. The government could not seize the printing press and annul the registrations of newspapers. Following the Supreme Court verdict, broadcast journalism has a similar status.

The radio stations repeatedly tried to resume the news and current affairs programmes. Their representatives talked with government authorities, army and various power centres, but to no avail. Given the situation, they are now fighting for the restoration of their right under aegis of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ).

"[FM radio's] impact on the grass roots level people always scares the rulers," says SIRM spokesperson Ghama Raj Luitel. "[The ban] is totally against the spirit of the constitution."

It is crystal clear that the popularity gained by FM radio stations led to the government's coup against them. But the rulers must know the FM radio is pro-people, not anti-government.

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Guna Raj Luitel is the news editor for Kantipur Daily, a highly circulated Nepalese newspaper. You can reach him at gunaraj@kantipur.com.np.

The views expressed above are those of the author and are not necessarily those of AsiaMedia or the UCLA Asia Institute.

Date Posted: 6/14/2005

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