As the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) is debating a ‘media policy’ clearly against a free media, there are signs that Nepali journalists might come under increased attack.
The draft policy not only talks of “neutralising” media critical to the Maoists, but also says “we must get the neutral ones into our fold”. In a context where more than two dozen journalists have lost their lives to Maoist as well as state violence, this news is chilling.
The national daily from Kathmandu that scooped the draft policy aptly commented that the Maoists would be using the media as a support rod, as a tool for defence as well as offense. The draft also says that it would use the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) — an umbrella organisation of working journalists — in its mission. It also plans to increase its proximity to journalists, particularly editors, so that the media does not oppose the party.
All these moves need to be seen with how pro-Maoist trade unions obstructed major publications in the past. The UCPN-M has stood firmly against the independence of the judiciary, and its top leaders, including Prachanda, used rallies and other platforms to warn the media that criticising the Maoists will not go unnoticed. Apart from issuing such threats, the party now owns print, radio as well as television channels which are used as ‘propaganda machinery’, as well as for the vilification and denouncement of its enemies and critics.
With the latest Maoist declaration that it would start a campaign asserting national independence and sovereignty, the party machinery is inventing more enemies and branding them as “local agents” of “hegemonic and foreign forces”. While the Maoist still say officially that they respect media freedom, their notorious youth wing, the Young Communist League (YCL) has circulated an issue of its weekly bulletin Lalrakshak identifying ‘foreign agents’ and ‘enemies’ of the revolution.
The international community has vainly been asking the Maoists to have the YCL’s para-military composition transformed, like any other party’s youth wing. The circulation of these journalists’ names among the militant youth cadre is an indicator, going by the past, that they will be targeted physically.
Nepal’s media industry is only about two decades old. The private sector entered in a big way only after the constitution guaranteed full protection of freedom of speech and expression as fundamental rights.
Although the Nepali media was initially divided when King Gyanendra took over in 2005, they crusaded collectively to mobilise opinion against the takeover. The international community, which has a enhanced presence in the country after the king surrendered power in April 2006, often gives credit to the media for the restoration of democracy.
The UN and many non-governmental organisations have funded FNJ in a big way, and media rights NGOs have mushroomed in the country. But in the absence of a clear definition of who constitutes journalists, it has been a profession which anyone can claim. In the last few years, especially after the king’s surrender, the media has been as radical as most political parties in terms of denying space to the ‘other view’.
And the Maoists, as the key agent of political change that led Nepal from monarchy to republicanism, from a Hindu to a secular, from a a unitary to a federal identity — got the most favourable press. But the lost much goodwill after the law and order situation fell to new depths, and after ministers and Maoists emerged as a class above the reach of law.
The latest draft media policy and the threat unleashed by the YCL has only reinforced that fear. “For accomplishing the revolution, maybe you need to be a bit brazen (uncivilised)”, UCPN-M chief Prachanda said recently. The Maoists’ logic is understandable — it is, after all, some critical sections of the media, along with the international community, that have exposed the way they use the peace process and comprehensive peace agreement merely as a ‘tactic’.
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