{"id":2395,"date":"2021-05-03T19:20:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T13:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2021-05-04T16:16:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T10:31:34","slug":"where-does-nepal-stand-in-press-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/2021\/05\/03\/where-does-nepal-stand-in-press-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Where does Nepal stand in press freedom?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kathmandu<\/strong>: Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based international non-profit and non-governmental organization, released the 2021 World Press Freedom Index in April this year evaluating the situation of press freedom in 180 countries and territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepal ranked at 106th, Norway 1st while Finland and Sweden stood at 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Nepal, it is a jump of six ranks from last year\u2019s 112nd position. The report, however, claims that this rise can\u2019t be attributed to measures that strengthen press freedom but was caused by a rise of disinformation in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, the index reflects rapid erosion of the ability of individuals to access true information and an increase in obstacles for coverage of news globally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media watchers say Nepal\u2019s standing in press freedom is not impressive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Nepal marked the World Press Freedom Day on May 3.  The UNESCO has chosen \u2018Information as Public Good\u2019 as the theme of this year\u2019s World Press Freedom Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media watchers say Nepal\u2019s standing in press freedom is not impressive. \u201cOur press freedom hasn\u2019t increased as it should have. Impunity, incidents of legal actions, and physical attacks on journalists don\u2019t promote press freedom,\u201d said Taranath Dahal, Executive Chief of Freedom Forum and an advocate of press freedom in Nepal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A Nepali journalist has his mouth wrapped with a piece of black cloth during a protest against a new set of laws that threaten to curb the media in Kathmandu, Nepal. (File photo\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the report of \u2018Reporters Without Borders,\u2019 he said Nepal’s rise in ranking wasn\u2019t necessarily due to measures the country took to ensure press freedom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dahal also said that the COVID-19 didn\u2019t allow journalists to go investigate in the field which is why they didn\u2019t face as many institutional hurdles as they would in normal times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued that the government has used Covid situation as a pretext to limit access to information and movement of journalists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalists in Nepal are facing multiple challenges<\/a> as many of them have been displaced due to the Covid-19 pandemic and many media houses have not paid them salaries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu: Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based international non-profit and non-governmental organization, released the 2021 World Press Freedom Index in April this year evaluating the situation of press freedom in 180 countries and territories. Nepal ranked at 106th, Norway 1st while Finland and Sweden stood at 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. For Nepal, it is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/press-freedom-nepal.jpg?fit=1620%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcWLTd-CD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nepallivetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}