180 degree turn

Nepalis disillusioned with the current crop of leaders took to the streets this week rallying for Gyanendra, the same king who staged a coup and banned free speech in 2005. Excerpts of the report on the government restriction on FM radio published 20 years ago this week on issue #238 11 – 17 March 2005:

Big things have small beginnings. When a group of Nepali media activists and journalists finally got the license to launch the country’s (and the region’s) first community radio station in 1996, the shabby one-room studio in Kathmandu didn’t look like much.

But Radio Sagarmatha did not just launch itself, it unleashed a wave of public broadcasting in Nepal bringing an unprecedented deregulation in the FM spectrum. Within a decade there were more than 50 FM stations across the country. And contrary to the government’s worst fears, the stations didn’t spread anarchy and chaos. In fact, radio became a vital source of information and expanded the public space for debate and consensus. They didn’t undermine our culture with Hindi pop, in fact Nepali folk and dohori got a big boost.

Nepal became recognised the world over as a pioneer in public service broadcasting in developing societies and young democracies. Nepalis could hold their heads high at international media seminars and show others how to do it.

Ten years of effort, training and investment has now been dismantled in one fell swoop by the government’s ban on news and current affairs on FM for security reasons. Even educational and farming programs can’t be aired. Some FMs have closed, others are broadcasting music all day long. 

For archived material of Nepali Times of the past  20 years, site search: nepalitimes.com