Neighbor India celebrated 56th Republic Day yesterday. Indeed it was a great day for them and as a neighbor it’s our duty to congratulate them. But how much big news is the celebration of the day for our newspapers? Well, seeing Annapurna Post, a vernacular daily with Indian investment, people would probably think it’s bigger for us than for them. And that, in my judgment is not because of their investment, but because of our approach.
Let’s begin with the amount of coverage: the three-column first page main photo of the children of Indian Central School with India’s national flags on their hand in Kathmandu accompanied by a two-column news on the program held by Indian Embassy here. On the third page, three-column photo of ambulances donated by India to Nepal on the occasion and on the 10th page, named International, five-column main news with a four-column photo of Indian Army men. The title goes: Grand Conclusion of Republic Day.
It can be compared with The Himalayan Times, another daily with Indian investment but in English. The Himalayan Times has nothing on the front page – not even a brief, on fifth a three column main news under title – Blasts, killings mar R-Day, and on second a photo of Indian envoy hoisting Indian flag at Kathmandu accompanied with two-column news under title – India donates ambulance.
At my sports desk, we talked a little about the coverage, shouldn’t we say it more-than-required – of the Annapurna Post and compared that with that of The Himalayan Times. With one of my colleague quoting a Annapurna Post reporter (“since there are Nepalis in-charges in the Annapurna Post who try to give undue coverage with matter relating India to make bosses happy, generally we end with more than that of The Himalayan Times where Indian nationals are in-charges.”), we reached the general consensus that ‘Nepali approach is worst that the foreign investment.’
I remember some months ago, the publishers of other newspapers united to protest foreign investment in media (which I also think should not have been allowed given the peculiar characteristics of media industry), which went cold after a few days. Now, seeing the current trend, aren’t our own kin betraying us?
