The Canadian media philosopher <a href="https://www.marshallmcluhan.com/biography/">Marshall McLuhan</a> was way ahead of his time in foreseeing how <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/addressing-nepals-digital-divide">the digital age </a>would transform the public sphere. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-message-is-the-medium-z5w3ekk2">medium was indeed the message</a>, and today the messaging app is the message.
On <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/days/press-freedom">World Press Freedom Day</a> on Saturday 3 May, journalists must remind ourselves that it is not only our freedom that needs to be protected. Freedom of press guarantees the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/20-years-ago-this-week/media-in-crisis">public’s right to know</a>, journalists are just defending the freedom of their fellow-citizens.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/no-freedom-after-expression">Democracy and freedom of expression</a>, by definition, go hand-in-hand. There can be no democracy without participation, and there is no participation without open communication.&nbsp;
But today, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/populism-vs-pluralism">democracy is in retreat across the world</a>, a trend that has gone hand-in-hand and has been abetted by the uncontrolled spread of social media platforms.&nbsp;
The world’s two most populous countries to Nepal’s north and south now have converging political systems and media landscapes. China’s phenomenal economic progress seems to have convinced its admirers that democracy and development are antithetical. &nbsp;
Over the past century, the United States demonstrated that a free press and the free market were two sides of the same coin — open society needed to be defended to ensure accountability and economic growth. The First Amendment to the US Constitution laid down that the legislature should make no laws that infringed on complete <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/jail-the-messenger">freedom of expression</a>.
Yet, the United States is proof now of how too much freedom can kill freedom. We now know that the liberty to say anything can mean we end up saying nothing. There can be so much freedom that the truth can be buried in an avalanche of lies. The free-for-all on the internet is merely an illusion of freedom.
Democracy allows citizens even the freedom to destroy democracy itself. With democracies in decay worldwide, media as the fourth pillar of democracy is turning into a pillar of authoritarianism.
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/democracy-s-discontents">Hyper-local digital media content is so polarised</a> that it paralyses democracy and pierces the armour protecting the free press. Algorithms reinforce and further radicalise entrenched beliefs, muffle public debate, and muzzle journalists.
The truth is then drowned in a cacophony of toxic trolling, hate speech and disinformation. AI has made it possible for deep <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balancing-free-expression-with-fake-news-on-social-media">fake content</a> to be even more potent and pervasive.
Democracy and social networking sites, alas, are not compatible. We have been reluctant to put it so bluntly before because agreeing to social media bans in Nepal (<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rattled-by-criticism-nepal-bans-tiktok">like the government did with TikTok</a>) would mean infringing on constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression. Such control could lead to creeping censorship of digital content by a thin-skinned government.
The age of AI-driven algorithms coincides with democratic reversal globally, and an existential crisis in the mainstream press. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/south-asia-2040-qxr16oup">Journalists are no longer sole gatekeepers</a>, ‘content creators’ and ‘influencers’ now give ‘users’ what they want, not what they need to make informed choices — for example about mitigating climate breakdown.
As a press freedom activist said at a recent gathering: “We do not go to a citizen doctor when we are sick, so why do we need citizen journalists to tell us what is happening?”
Yet publishers and editors are stuck in their old ways, unable or unwilling to adapt to new storytelling styles and multimedia packaging formats. With falling revenue, there is less money for investigative reporting which was already jeopardised by corporate conflict of interest.
The free press must survive so that democracy is made more accountable, and pluralism can <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-populist-party-balenist">prevail over populism</a>. For this, journalism must fight back. Smaller, isolated pockets of independence and professionalism need support to resist. Even practicing independent journalism in this day and age is a form of resistance.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/media-melee-in-the-age-of-ai">AI will embolden techno-fascists</a>, replacing physical death squads with cyber lynch mobs. Governments do not need to censor the media, journalists can be silenced by corporate takeovers and mass trolling. They do not need to kill journalists anymore, they can just let journalism die.
Free speech is no longer about journalism, ‘free speech’ is what is on YouTube or TikTok. Journalism used to be governed by rules about verification, double-checking, about credibility and trust. Posts on X do not have to abide by any of those rules, and the tyranny of the algorithm remakes McLuhan’s global village with tribalism.&nbsp;
Media freedom has ended up killing freedom, as another philosopher of resistance, <a href="https://janisjoplin.com/">Janis Joplin</a>, once sang 60 years ago: “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”
Kunda Dixit

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Messaging is the Message

“If you are 45 or younger then you have never experienced a normal climate,” said Richard Mahapatra, managing editor of environmental magazine Down to Earth. His presentation ‘Politics of Environment and the Media’ was the ending session of the third annual Himal Media Mela 2024.&nbsp; The theme of Press Freedom Day this year is ‘Press for the Planet’, and all workshops and sessions, including Mahapatra’s, provided a plethora of story ideas for the journalists gathered at Yalamaya Kendra.&nbsp; “Climate change isn’t just a story anymore, it is the context where every story takes place,” says Mahapatra. “Everybody and everything is a climate story today. Migration happens on the backdrop of climate crises. And economic stories are invariably also climate stories.”&nbsp; Reflecting on exploits since the industrial age, Mahapatra highlighted how the human way of life has been a catalyst for the climate crisis that has affected Earth.&nbsp; "We have altered the planet so much that it is entering a new age that is named after us: The Anthropocene,” said Mahapatra.&nbsp; Mahapatra cemented the idea that there is a politics to the environment, a problem of the rich vs the poor. Mahapatra added that it is the poor who are left on the degraded land with tremendously polluted air, water, and land.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024050316054_2311d978cb41e1b00f2626886324a23e4d729f48174250156adfb721d062268a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024050316054_2311d978cb41e1b00f2626886324a23e4d729f48174250156adfb721d062268a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1366" loading="lazy" alt="Richard Mahapatra NT"> </figure>  Mahapatra’s presentation focused specifically on the linkages of stories, regardless of how disconnected we feel.&nbsp; “We are already by existence globalised. In such a situation, no local story stays within its locality. We are linked. A climate change story or a simple disaster story from one locality can be linked to another climate issue taking place a million miles away,” said Mahapatra.&nbsp; Conflicts and war, all over the world, have displaced people, and climate-related disasters are displacing more.&nbsp; “The jungles, which naturally take about 120 years to become extinct, are now dying in thirty years,” said Mahapatra. “Our extinction rate is dangerously high.” To combat this crisis, added Mahapatra, journalists must gear up and do their part.&nbsp; He says: “Soon enough, Nepal, which has six seasons, will barely have three.” &nbsp;

Ushering in the Anthropocene

The third Himal Media Mela 2024 continued on Friday following the keynote speech from Mohamed Nasheed, climate activist, writer/journalist, and former president of the Maldives.&nbsp;
The day-long symposium included four workshops and two panel discussions ranging from possibilities of AI usage in newsrooms to threats faced by investigative journalists in environmental reporting, to climate finance.&nbsp;
In the first session of the day, Naresh Newar gave a workshop on AI in the Newsroom with a presentation about how media practitioners can responsibly use Large Language Models (LLM) and Generative AI to ease their workload.&nbsp;
“One main way AI can lighten the burden of journalists is by using it on small repetitive tasks that could lead to burnout,” said Newar, adding that newsrooms can use AI in such tasks as proofreading, transcription, review, and research.&nbsp;
“However, one must not claim AI-generated content as their own,” cautioned Newar. &nbsp;
The workshop also delved into the rapid advancement of AI technology, as well as its limitations. There was also discussion surrounding the ethics of AI use, and the need for newsrooms to be careful in identifying AI-generated content that might be posed as human-generated media.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, during the workshop on Data Mining to Tell Compelling Stories, data journalists Mohan Mainali and Arun Karki shed light on formulating stories from available data sources, and the importance of interactive data in storytelling.
“A single set of data can generate multiple stories and analyses,” said Arun Karki. “The key is to know how and where to look.”
Sharing his experiences while reporting for a three-part series published in Nepali Times analysing meteorological, hydrological and demographic data from eastern Nepal, Mohan Mainali emphasised on the importance of data visualisation.
“Like the expression, ‘show, don’t tell’ goes—it is the journalist’s responsibility to visualise and present data in the most easily apprehensible way for audiences,” said Mainali. “And although numbers by themselves do not have much to say, visualising those numbers reveals trends.”
The speakers also encouraged journalists to make the most out of open-source and freely available data while reporting on environmental issues, adding that climate-related data are more accessible than most. &nbsp;
“When media is under a financial crisis, data journalism lets journalists form a story without actually having to go to the field,” added Mainali.
Later in the day, water expert Ajaya Dixit during the workshop Media for Early Warning of Disasters discussed how Nepal can move to a disaster-resilient future. He highlighted that Nepal’s policies recognise that it is prone to multi-hazards, and must be prepared for them.
“The media must proactively communicate relevant messages before, during and after disasters, but attributing all environmental issues to climate change is not enough,” he said.
“Furthermore, no disaster is natural,” added Dixit, giving an example of how poorly built houses kill people, not earthquakes themselves. “Media coverage must stop referring to disasters as natural.
“We need to recognise the events within our borders—such as the soot from wildfires that are expediting the melting of the mountains— that contribute to the climate crisis,” remarked Rama Parajuli of the BBC.
Dixit also pointed to the need for collaboration between media practitioners, researchers, and development partners, and that knowledge and information need to be cross-validated.”
“Disaster, hazard, vulnerability, and risk are used interchangeably in Nepal. These terms need to be contextualised, disaggregated, and used appropriately,” he further added. “Reporting has to be based in science.”
The workshop Investigating Climate Finance led by economist Rashtraraj Bhandari of the Asian Development Bank was a crash course into climate finance, as well as jargon journalists must understand while reporting on climate finance.
The economist during his presentation emphasised the need for nations to generate their climate funds.&nbsp;
“Foreign grants and funding are never going to be enough to combat climate crises, and expecting external funding for them is more costly in the long-term— both economically and &nbsp;socially,” said Bhandari, “We as a country must identify what ‘green’ means for us, not what is dictated by grant-giving countries or projects.”
Bhandari also urged the journalists that storytelling should look beyond numbers. “Real stories are the ones that visualise the impact of crises,” he added.
The Media Mela continued into the second half of the day with two panel discussions.&nbsp;
In the session Threats against Environmental Journalists, &nbsp;moderator Bidhya Rai, as well as panellists Ramesh Bhushal and Ramu Sapkota narrated personal experiences in the field while discussing the dangers that Nepali reporters who investigate environmental exploitation and crimes face.&nbsp;
“Our rich natural resources are being exploited by those in power, and is part of our economic activity,” noted moderator Bidhya Rai said during the session’s introductory remarks.&nbsp;
Ramesh Bhushal, Nepal editor of The Third Pole, remarked that environmental journalism had long been attributed to travel and luxury, and simply writing about nature.
“Environmental reporting is political reporting—it involves reporting on corruption, and those exploiting resources for their self-interest,” said &nbsp;“It is thus people-based reporting,” added Bhushal.
Bhushal added that environmental journalists have been under threat from the moment that environmental reporting began in the 70s, soon after the exploitation of natural resources became part of the mainstream discourse globally.
There are not just threats to journalists’ physical safety. The increasing fragility of the environment also means that reporters face the risk of experiencing disasters like landslides and floods while in the field.&nbsp;
“While there is information that can be accessed remotely, one cannot report about the environment entirely from the desk, it has to be done from the field,” said independent journalist Ramu Sapkota.
Journalists also face possibilities of legal repercussions, from local-level leaders to powerful political cronies. And it is not just journalists who risk their safety. The panellists also spoke about how sources become hesitant to communicate with reporters when their lives and safety are threatened.&nbsp;
“The climate of fear in the community is increasing,” said Bhushan.
“Independent journalists and local reporters are under more risk than reporters who have support from and are in communication with their newsrooms,” added Sapkota. &nbsp;
The panellists further discussed how maintaining constant communication with newsrooms, as well as friends, and family can mitigate risks to media practitioners who investigate environmental exploitation.
Also present in the session were Laxmi and Sangam Mahato, the sisters of Dilip Mahato, an activist who was murdered by contractors extracting sand from the Aurahi River in Dhanusha. Dilip had been protesting illegal sand mining in the river and organising the local community to conserve the Chure Hills.&nbsp;
His sisters have continued their brother’s fight to save their river and village from illegal sand mining even as they continue to get threatened by their brother’s killers.&nbsp;
The panelists also spoke about what they called a ‘grey area’ between environmental journalism and environmental activism.
“While we should not be engaging in activism, we should provide information that enables activism,” said Bhushal.
Sapkota agreed. “We need to provide space to and encourage those who want to take up activism.”
Meanwhile, public interest litigator Sanjay Adhikari during the panel Economics of Ecology also touched upon the need for environmental activism. “Environmental activism is not a want for us, it’s a need,” said the lawyer.
Adhikari also spoke about what he called “absurdities” in the plans for the Nijgadh airport, including the scale of the trees cut down to make way for the project, and claims that animals would “retreat into the forest from the runways when planes landed.”&nbsp;
Environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar, who was also part of the panel, also offered critique of Nepal’s environmental policies while championing electric public transport as a public good— reminding the audience that over half of the households, even in the Kathmandu Valley, do not own private vehicles.&nbsp;
Tuladhar also noted how environmental issues disproportionately affect some communities and groups over others. “Indoor pollution is a major part of air pollution in Nepal that directly affects women and children,” he said.
Tuladhar highlighted the economic and health costs of environmental issues such as pollution, reminding that air pollution costs the world 6% of its GDP —$8.1 trillion— every year, on healthcare costs.&nbsp;
Tuladhar asked: “What would we be willing to pay for an extra 1.2 years of life, which would be possible if the air pollution decreased by only 30%?”

The political economy of environment

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When the other pillars of democracy fail to act as check and balance, the press has to step in to hold power to account. 
Which is why authoritarian and elected autocrats around the world who have co-opted the judiciary, legislature and executive are now targeting the media. Journalists are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/in-a-surveillance-state">surveilled</a>, threatened and even murdered for doing their job. 
The ill-gotten wealth of demagogues is mostly derived from licensing the exploitation of natural resources. Often, it is only <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/investing-in-investigative-journalism">investigative journalists</a> who stand in the way of greed and ambition.
UNESCO’s theme for World Press Freedom Day this year is ‘Press for the Planet’. Climate breakdown, mining, or illegal logging are no longer just ‘environmental’ features — they are stories of political crime.
Nepal is one of the most <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-should-be-open-for-south-asia">open societies in Asia</a> at present. But it was not always like this. Nepal has had its dark periods: 1960-90, 2005, 2016. Even at present, it is not smooth sailing for the mass media here. 
Successive governments in the eight years since the new Constitution have tried to squeeze the press. People posting on Facebook have been arrested, YouTubers taken to court, and last year the government banned TikTok.
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rattled-by-criticism-nepal-bans-tiktok">Censorship in instalments</a> is a way to test the waters to see if the backlash from freedom activists can be handled before imposing stricter restrictions. 
Local reporters, who do not have the protection enjoyed by more high-profile journalists in the capital, are threatened and gagged from reporting on activities that harm nature and livelihoods. 
Rabi Lamichhane has been under a cloud ever since he was Home Minister last year. A former tv anchor, Lamichhane is open about his contempt for the mainstream press, which he calls the ‘Dirty Dozen’.
Soon after becoming minister this time, he directed local officials to monitor news and social media posts in all 77 districts to keep track of content critical of the government.
He was forced to withdraw this daft idea after a backlash, but is now employing other channels to hit at Big Media mainly through portals, police and the investigation bureau he commands. The man obviously has much to hide, and is blaming the messenger.
Mayors Balen Shah in Kathmandu and Harka Sampang in Dharan who were propelled to office by social media propagation of their populist personas have shown thin skins, and a disdain for journalists critical of their methods. 
The draft Media Council Bill will allow a government secretary to select its chair and members. The Council is supposed to ‘advise’ the government in formulating media policies and code of conduct, much like a fox guarding the chicken coop.
Journalism in Nepal is already in crisis because of the collapse of the business model of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-new-news-age">legacy media</a>. Just when we need an independent press to safeguard freedoms, it is more exposed to corporate and political pressure. There is a steady erosion of democracy in South Asia with varying degrees of censorship. Nepal has flourished as a place for the meeting of the minds, where nationals of neighbouring countries come for free and open discussion. But that space could close if journalists here do not fully defend our constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of expression.
Some of our neighbours have decided that democracy and a free press keep them economically backward, and have adopted the East Asian authoritarian model. We in Nepal have tried strongman rule before, and it failed quite spectacularly. 
Media has an agenda-setting role in a democracy. It amplifies the public voice so people are empowered to demand action from elected officials against wrongdoing. Lack of accountability lies at the root of everyday problems like underdevelopment, lack of jobs, air pollution, or environmental degradation.
The current wildfire emergency in this country is a result of decades of official neglect, political apathy and fatalism. 
Journalists reporting on the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/climate-crisis-drought-food-deficit-migration">climate crisis</a>, natural resource exploitation or biodiversity loss have shown great courage and sacrifice to get the truth out. Many have been killed. Others have been threatened and silenced. Climate deniers troll science journalists. 
Here in Nepal,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/a-nation-built-on-sand"> illegal sand mining</a>, quarrying and logging have destroyed ecosystems. The climate emergency is now magnifying the impact of such wanton destruction on Nepal’s economy. 
Disasters like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-valley-suffers-quadruple-disaster">Melamchi</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sikkim-flood-is-warning-to-nepal">Sikkim</a> could hit cascade projects along the Marsyangdi, Sun Kosi and Arun rivers. Journalists cannot just wait for disasters to strike any more, they must warn of them.
This week, even as smoke from wildfires blanketed the country, the Tarai is reeling under a heat wave. Jhapa was 43°C with 40% humidity, that is very near the lethal wet bulb temperature. 
What media chooses not to report, what to report on and how much prominence is given to it determines whether action is taken in time to mitigate danger. 
These ‘environmental’ stories are political stories: 
<ul><li>The government banned plastic bags three times but had to lift it because of lobbying by powerful pellet importers.</li><li>Air pollution can be reduced by incentivising electric transport, but there are vested interests in the fossil lobby.</li><li>Nijgad is not an airport project, it is a logging concession controlled by political cronies. </li></ul>
The job of a free press is not just to name and shame crooks, but also to restore the people’s faith in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/populism-vs-pluralism">democracy and pluralism</a>. It is the democratic system with freedom of speech and fair elections to reward performance that makes this system work. 
We may have no expectations from our tried, tested and failed politicians, but let us not blame the system that they have abused.

Sonia Awale

Press under Pressure

This year’s World Press Freedom Day on 3 May falls during COVID-19 lockdowns in many of our countries. Restriction on movement means journalists all over the world are facing obstacles in getting interviews and data, and verifying stories before publishing.In addition, the global pandemic has been used by many governments to control not just the people’s movement but also their right to information. Journalists have been intimidated or attacked, and photojournalists and videographers on the frontlines often risk getting infected while documenting stories.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/lockdown-crackdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lockdown Crackdown</a>, EditorialTwo recent webinars conducted by Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) and Finance Uncovered (FU) showed that recent government moves to restrict the press in Nepal are not unique – they are happening in many countries around the world.There have been efforts by authorities to criminalise journalism, and this is putting journalists reporting on the pandemic at risk, noted Courtney Radsch of the Center to Protect Journalists at the GIJN webinar. In Nepal, too, there have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/lockdown-crackdown/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/lockdown-crackdown/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1588303395047000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE0w7-uF8_CXAUiqOy9AfnGn8Y2Rg">attempts by various government agencies to censor information. </a><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121124/636b8dd29c7e80680e06b36cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="746" height="560"/><figcaption>Photo: MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA</figcaption></figure>Last month, the portal <a href="http://www.kathmandupress.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.kathmandupress.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1588303395047000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHevp5RQMt3kOoZW-Z80WS2OffnTg">Kathmandu Press posted a story</a> about alleged corruption during the purchase of medical equipment involving people in high places. This story was deleted from the site by a software company maintaining the portal’s homepage which had links to individuals in the Prime Minister’s Office involved in the deal.On 27 April, Radio Nepal aired a live interview of former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai that was sharply critical of Prime Minister K P Oli. The government asked the head of the state-owned radio station and its news editor for an explanation, and got the interview deleted from Radio Nepal’s site.On 18 April, Press Council Nepal (PCN) sent a letter to Nepal Telecommunication Authority to shut down certain web-based portals and ban them from publishing false news. In all these recent cases, the government appears to be using the cover of the COVID-19 crisis and the excuse of protecting privacy and shielding the public from fake news and character assassination to crackdown on the free press.“Many supposedly democratic countries like the United States, India and Nepal are censoring the press and making it very difficult for press freedom to prevail while covering COVID 19,” said <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/in-locked-down-nepal-print-is-still-king/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/in-locked-down-nepal-print-is-still-king/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1588303395047000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGhb3EiYv_dsV9Zmyy4FohVmEadqA">Kosmos Biswokarma editor of Kathmandu Press</a>. Tampering with the website without permission raised grave questions of freedom of press in this country, he added.The mission of journalism is to use the citizens’ right to freedom of expression to keep them informed. Journalists go to great lengths, and put themselves at considerable risk, to gather and investigate factual information to alert the public and authorities about wrong-doing and malpractice.However, citizens today get their information not just from the mass media but also from the Internet. The dissemination of fake news, rumours, defamation, violation of privacy on social media is not journalism. Governments should make that distinction.The authorities should not mistake misinformation for journalism, and not use objectionable social media content for blanket suppression of journalistic information. There has to be a mechanism to track such content and take action against perpetrators. It is the Press Council Nepal’s job to trace these sources, and not issue directives to ban portals. In fact it is not the PCN’s job to close down the media at all.During emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, due diligence rules are relaxed and there is a lack of transparency in big deals. Because it is the journalist’s job to speak truth to power, this often gets them into trouble, as happened in Nepal with the coverage of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-to-test-covid-19-test-kits-from-china/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-to-test-covid-19-test-kits-from-china/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1588303395048000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHDyxZuQKhAZpSJr9rwB_DeXQd1Bw">Omni Business Corporate International</a> in the direct purchase of test kits and medical equipment from China at inflated cost.Shiva Gaunle of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal (CIJ-N) says the biggest problem journalists are facing during the present crisis is getting data and verifying them. “It is not just the lockdown and restrictions on mobility, news items are taken off home pages or shut down, how can Nepal claim to have right to information and rule of law?” he asks.Journalism is not a crime, and fake news is not journalism. Governments should be able to separate the two, especially during emergencies like this global pandemic.Namrata Sharma is the former chair of the Centre for Investigative Journalism NepalTwitter: NamrataSharmaPnamrata1964@yahoo.com

Journalism is not a crime...

Fenerbahçe Beko won the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi, held 23-25 May, defeating Monaco 81-70 in the final. Olympiacos, who defeated Panathinaikos 97-93, finished the series in third place. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final match, Nigel Hayes-Davis from Fenerbahçe Beko, received a prize of 1,000,000 Miles&amp;Smiles from Turkish Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Ahmet Olmuştur. The carrier has been the title sponsor of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, a top tier tournament, since 2010.

Turkish Basketball

While Nepal was hosting the Sagarmatha Sambaad international climate conference in Kathmandu this month, on Mt Everest it was pretty much business as usual.&nbsp; The signs of climate breakdown are all there: a river now runs through Base Camp in summer, the Khumbu Icefall is more unstable, and there are more &nbsp;frequent avalanches. When expeditions arrived in March, the mountains were bare: it had not snowed since September, but then blizzards dumped unseasonal snow in May. And despite climate worries, such is the pull of Himalayan mountaineering that the Everest Industry showed no signs of slowdown. More than 600 international climbers and their Nepali guides had made it to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. At one point there were an estimated 2,000 people in the tent city on the Khumbu Glacier. All the ropes and ladders on the Icefall came down on Thursday, marking the official end of the spring climbing season, and just in time to avoid a monsoon cyclone approaching from the Bay of Bengal. It has been an action-packed season. One factor could be that Everest fees will go up from September: each foreign climber needs to pay a $15,000 royalty, up from the present $11,000. The cost for a Nepali climber on the South Col route will also go up: from Rs75,000 to Rs150,000.&nbsp; The fee to climb Everest in autumn is $7,500 (up from $5,500), but most climbers still prefer spring. Winter permit fee (December-February) is only $3,750 per person and the mountain is now also open for monsoon (June-August) climbs, when the fee is ever lower at $2,750. The revised rule also makes it mandatory for every two climbers on an 8,000m peak to hire one Nepali mountain guide.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2025053004050_67f856fe52714e4bdcf21ae7d45c6f18c82117b9d0a5f73ed1efa04c96de1046" data-rendition-name="original" width="931" height="732" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry graph 1"> </figure>  In addition, climbers also have to pay for porters and guides, equipment, Base Camp costs, Ice Fall and fixed rope team fees, so climbing Everest does not come cheap. But such is the draw of climbing the world’s highest peak that some say the increased fees will not diminish the crowds next year. The government has tried to spread expeditions out to other seasons and other 8,000ers, but with not much success. Earlier this year, Nepal unilaterally increased the number of 8,000m peaks to 14 by adding six more sub-summits to broaden the choice for climbers. Added were: Yalung Kang (8,505m), Yalung Kang West (8,077m) &nbsp;Kangchenjunga Central (8,473m), Kangchenjunga South (8,476m), Lhotse Middle (8,410m) and Lhotse Shar (8,400m).&nbsp; The announcement could go against the accepted topographic criteria that a stand alone peak has to be at least 300m higher than an adjoining prominence, and at more than 3km isolation from it. The UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) still recognises only 14 mountains as eight-thousanders, and only eight of those are in Nepal, or on the border with China. Nepal’s revised mountaineering regulations also increased the insurance coverage of high-altitude workers to protect porters and high altitude guides who usually take more risks on the mountains. Rescue teams and clean-up campaigners to collect trash and remove bodies of dead climbers up to Camp IV of Mt Everest do not need permits.&nbsp; The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee is now using drones to fly down trash in 20kg sacks. Each climber is also required to bring down at least 6kg of waste and not just their own, but this rule is erratically enforced. With five fatalities on Everest and Lhotse, Spring 2025 had a historically low death toll. Another five climbers died on Annapurna, Kangchenjunga and Makalu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025053004050_38681de22f0fefb6faa12b01755566d09c5064d0ff84e12ccc7b5d68ea9ba38a" data-rendition-name="original" width="665" height="740" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest industry graph 2"> </figure>  Journalist Ben Ayers who ran the Everest Live social media channel from Everest Base Camp with daily updates credited the low death rate to dramatic rescues of climbers from the ‘Death Zone’ by their Nepali guides and longline helievacs — the visuals all uploaded on YouTube.&nbsp; “Ironically, this perception of safety is bringing more and more inexperienced climbers to the mountain, and they need more rescues,” Ayers said in one of his dispatches.&nbsp; American expedition chronicler and summiteer Alan Arnette suspects there is a lot of under-reporting given that the jet stream and storms were lashing Everest even till late in the season. He told us: “I heard a lot about frostbite and rescues that were not made public. It’s become practically impossible to cover the details on Everest. All the teams report nice news, and they don’t talk about bad stuff to avoid hurting businesses.” Although trash on Nepal’s mountains makes headlines, what does not receive as much attention is the climate impact of so many expeditions. The Sagarmatha Sambaad conference sidestepped this issue, which is ironic given that the impact of climate breakdown is most evident on Himalayan peaks and their glaciers.&nbsp; <h2>Need for Speed</h2> The big stories this year have been about speed-running from their home cities to the top of Everest. Ukrainian entrepreneur Andrew Ushakov flew out of JFK on 15 May at 10:15AM Nepal time, and was on the summit 3 days, 23 hours, and 7 minutes later on 19 May at 9:22AM.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250601080640_1c5cc6fc991307861768f07037ed9d30930fb20f35dbb57dc31c9a92a9e1a885" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="1800" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry"> <figcaption>Andrew Ushakov at the summt. Photo: ELITE EXPED</figcaption> </figure>  “I could never find the time for the traditional 40-50 days of acclimatisation,” Ushakov explained matter-of-factly. His ‘Everest Sea-to-Summit’ climb was possible because he spent 400 hours in hypoxic sleep tents over the past four years in New York. However, Ushakov did use ropes already fixed, hired four Nepali guides, helicoptered to Base Camp, and used much more oxygen than an average climber. And after the climb, Ushakov was arrested at Kathmandu airport for being in possession of $20,000 of undeclared cash and spent a night in jail and fined $60,000.&nbsp; The other speedsters were Garth Miller, Alastair Cairns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington, all former British Army commandos. They left London and summited five days later on 21 May, and flew right back. They also used hypoxic tents to simulate the thin air high on Everest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20250601080644_90c8dd5cc07b4b43f2989b1dc0c0650ab80f10ebb06680c25a6909c519957bd8" data-rendition-name="original" width="810" height="668" loading="lazy" alt="The Everest Industry "> <figcaption>All four members of the Furtenbach team at the summit. Photo: Sandro Gromen-Hayes</figcaption> </figure>  But more controversial was their use of xenon gas therapy in a German hospital to ramp up the production of oxygen-carrying haemoglobins in their blood. Xenon is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency for being performance enhancing in sports. Expedition leader Lukas Furtenbach said this rule does not apply to mountaineering, as it is not a regulated sport like swimming. Nepal has no rules about xenon, but the Department of Tourism said it was launching an ‘investigation’ to decide on future policy since it is difficult to ban xenon, but allow oxygen. The controversy has also divided the mountaineering community, with some climbers saying they just want to maximise their chances of survival. Spending less time on the mountain could make climbing safer by reducing avalanche risk. It would also mean less trash on the mountains, but it would reduce the income of Nepal’s expedition industry. It is also unclear how much of the success was due to xenon therapy and whether the ex-special forces were already in good physical shape.&nbsp; The need for speed hides the fact that climbing in the Himalaya is dangerous business, and climbers cannot sprint to the top just by huffing xenon. But ultra-fast climbs could be charged more, and the revenue generated can be used to establish state-of-the-art rescue operations, and increase pay and insurance for guides. Two other speed chasers this season were Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff and American Tyler Andrews, both on Everest without oxygen. Andrews choppered to Base Camp to catch a weather window, but turned back from 8,500m due to high winds. Heavy snow and wind also forced Egloff to descend from 7,000m. Slow and steady climbers like Anja Blacha from Germany did make it to the summit without oxygen, while Kami Rita Sherpa broke his own record with his 31st Everest summit as he led a 26-strong Indian Army group. There were 468 permits issued for foreign climbers from 48 expeditions to Everest this spring. Nepal’s other eight-thousanders together had only 17 expeditions. Nepal has more than 1,000 peaks above 6,000m, and has opened only 476 of them for climbing.&nbsp;

The Everest Industry

While Nepal marked <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a> Day on 29 May, on the other side of the planet in the US state of Colorado dozens of Nepalis who have climbed the world’s highest peak multiple times were busy working as chefs and Uber drivers. Among them is Nima Doma Sherpa, who climbed Mt Everest in 2019 after her husband Tshering Wangchu was among 16 crushed by an avalanche on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/on-thin-ice-in-the-khumbu">the Khumbu Icefall</a> five years earlier. A large serac broke off the West Shoulder of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-everest-industry">Mt Everest </a>and fell directly on a group of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/more-porters-sick-on-everest-trail">porters and guides</a> making their way up the Icefall at 5,800m. Their bodies were flown by helicopter to Khumjung where Tshering Wangchu was born. He was excited about climbing Mt Everest for the first time.&nbsp; In Khumjung, Nima Doma felt like her own life had also ended. This was the kind of news Sherpa wives, mothers and sisters dreaded every <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/peak-climbing-season-2025-s4abrxny">mountaineering season</a>. She stayed home for more than two years grieving, but ultimately gathered up all her emotional strength to take care of her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. Nima had grown up in Khumjung hearing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/stories-of-nepal-s-summiteers">tales of adventure on the mountains </a>from their father, Ang Chubi Sherpa who had climbed Everest in 1993. He used to bring her and her sisters and brother European chocolates after every expedition, and used to tell them that the chocolate bars grew on the mountains. “It was only after we got older did we realise that he told us that chocolates grew in the mountains so we would not worry about him putting himself in harm's way,” Nima Doma recalled with a faraway look at her home in Boulder this week. Nima went to the school that <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/commemorating-edmund-hillary-in-nepal,4145">Edmund Hillary</a> opened in Khumjung till Grade 8, and then dropped out to help in the kitchen and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">tend yaks</a>. She was married off to Tshering Wangchu, who was also a high altitude guide. When Tshering went on expeditions, Nima also started working as a porter from Namche to Base Camp. It was perhaps her father’s tales of mountains of chocolates that had always attracted her to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/knowing-our-mountains-43v4iyvo">the peaks</a>. After her husband was killed ten years ago this month, being a widow with children was not easy for Nima Doma. But she was not alone: there were at least 200 single mothers in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/khumbu-since-1950-jaww4qn0">the Khumbu</a>, and 20 of them just in Khumjung whose husbands had been killed in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/tragic-start-to-himalayan-spring-nepal,3695">mountaineering accidents</a>. Some were not even 20 years old, and had children growing up without fathers. But there were also women in the 50s whose husbands had been killed in the 1980s. Nima found sponsors for her children’s education, and moved to Kathmandu. In the capital, Sherpa widows used to meet to help each other. Some of them had joined the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) training for rock and ice climbing. “I decided that it was no use sitting home and crying anymore, after meeting other single mothers I felt less alone,” remembers Nima, who joined the Juniper Foundation and enrolled in an NMA training camp in Manang. There she climbed Chulu East (6,584m) and met Furadiki Sherpa, whose rope-fixing husband had also been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/on-mt-everest-s-70th-records-and-fatalities">killed on Everest</a> in 2013. They set themselves the goal of climbing Everest one day, and started a fund-raising drive.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250530090544_621be0724b9182c8e3594b2c562a71ec32ac01d985a71d0cf31646de9d51e15a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2678" height="1274" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  “We decided we had to overcome society’s stigma of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/widows-personal-happiness-comes-last-in-face-of-social-financial-hardships,1855">widowhood</a> and prove that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/remembering-junko-tabei">women could also climb mountains</a>,” Nima said, adding that she was inspired by Nepal’s first woman Everest summiteer Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who died during her descent in 1993. Nima Doma and Furdiki climbed the technically-difficult Ama Dablam (6,812m) and then arrived at Everest Base Camp in April 2019 as part of their Two Widows Expedition with the motto, ‘So Can We’. While climbing up the Icefall Nima passed the spot where her husband had been killed. It was a jumble of constantly-shifting ice blocks bigger than houses. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. “I remember thinking, this is so difficult and dangerous. This is what my husband had to do to support our family,” Nima Doma said. “I was determined to fulfil my husband’s dream of climbing Chomolungma, and to prove to ourselves that we two women could do it.” It was 23 May 2019 when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/two-sherpa-widows-scale-everest-and-smash-stigma-idUSKCN1SU0MV/" target="_blank">Nima and Furdiki stepped on the summit</a> and looked over into Tibet, and down at Tengboche Monastery to the south.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b.png" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250530090544_6b822582b5d88ba5e972db084f184690b40653c6efd9901b2dd082ffba2a263b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2700" height="1522" loading="lazy" alt="Everest summiteers find new life in the US"> </figure>  Nima Doma hugged Furdiki, took off her mask and wept. But for the first time in five years, it was not from grief but relief — relief for being free of all the sadness and sacrifices and for fulfilling her husband’s dream. They had found <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/life-after-death">life after death</a>. “I felt this immense joy to be on top of the world, it was indescribable,” Nima Doma said, “I have wept only twice in my life. Once when my husband died, and once there on top of Everest.” The tears had frozen on Nima Doma’s cheeks, as she and Furdiki headed back down the mountain.

Everest summiteers find new life in the US

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