ujjwal.acharya@gmail.com

After a fortnight of the Royal Coup, I would like to comment on the media and their ‘bravery’ in publishing or not publishing about the coup.

Himal, a fortnightly newsmagazine that never failed to criticize the King’s role in the past, came up in the bravest way. The first issue after the coup was published two days ago and ran a full page advertisement and a note by editor to tell the readers that the magazine has been censored and claimed that it would soon change. The ad with two photographs, the first with the mountain (mountain is Himal in Nepali) covered by clouds with caption Mountain is blocked … and the second without clouds saying … but will again be unblocked, is so vivid in meaning that everybody understood the hidden meaning.

The editor’s note on the content page ‘we regret the difficulties caused by the imbalance in some of our article due to special censor’ and grey fill for the content relating to the coup along with the main editorial (‘Long Live Democracy’) talking about the King’s commitment towards democracy were all but the protest of the King’s move. The newsmagazine was heavy censored (how do I know it? Because they left all the censored areas blank.)

Weeklies like Deshantar and Bimarsha although were censored protested the move by leaving the editorial page blank and publishing the front page in grey. What we today popularly talk as the Mission Journalism (the role of journalists in returning democracy to Nepal in 1990 was greatly appreciated and called that Mission Journalism while trying to separate it from professional journalism) is set to make a return. The journalists at era of 1960-1990 bravely published newspapers despite being imprisoned and punished several times. Continue reading…

The media are slowly opening up and today’s newspapers confirmed it.

The leader of Nepal’s biggest political party GP Koirala has appealed for the protest, non-violent and peaceful, from Feb 18. And he has also admitted the mistake of political parties including his for the situation. That thing could be good for the future of the country.

I asked a leader of Nepali Congress’ sister-organization about reaction to the appeal and he told me that they had met today in secret place and decided to start peaceful protest from Feb 18 as appealed. They also agreed not to easily let security personnel capture them as used to be in recent past and continue staging protests at various levels. The student union is also talking to other seven student organizations for unity in the protest.

So for now, it looks like Feb 18, the democracy day, is going to be a big day but what form it will take is hard to tell. Continue reading…

Question of Survival
In between last few days, I was unable to write anything. A few important things happened during the time:

Since, February 3 night, the army stationed at the newspapers offices and FM stations have been removed. FMs have been banned to run news based program whereas newspapers are warned not to publish anything against. However, the scenario is a little changing – there are news about problems created by lack of telecommunication and news about Pokhara shooting with quotes from Deepak Gurung, the spokesperson of the Royal Nepalese Army.

• Samay weekly gets published on Sunday – two days late because of heavy Army censoring, according to my friends in the newsmagazine. Despite that, the magazine is critical and is most-sought after for its balanced coverage on the issue.
• Telephones are now available for longer times, for me whole day both incoming and outgoing for some others only incoming. But not ISD and no Internet.
• Most sadly, the newspapers have thinned and are now talking about lay-off requirement to survive the period unknown. We are already talking about looking for new job. The question of surviving the direct rule of the press has been most pressing question and didn’t look good for the journalists. However, we all are as our newspapers are following ‘wait and see’ strategy for two months more. The news staff at FM Stations are already feeling the heat.

Foreign media went Pokhara to report hostel shooting incident and found out that at least two have been hit on thigh and undergoing treatment while 66 arrested were beaten badly and thrown to trenches for around 14 hours without water and food. However, they reported no casualty.

Special note on this entry:Radio Free Nepal was a blog that ran during ex-King Gyanendra’s direct rule of Nepal defying the tight censorship and was instrumental in getting out information out of Nepal. The blog was at freenepal.blogspot.com which has now been closed.

The banner reads: King Gyandendra of Nepal has issued a ban on independent news broadcasts and has threatened to punish newspapers for reports that run counter to the official monarchist line. Given that any person in Nepal publishing reports critical of “the spirit of the royal proclamation” is subject to punishment and/or imprisonment, contributors to this blog will publish their reports from Nepal anonymously.

Many people I met on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning were slightly in support of the King’s move saying that there was no alternative in such a deteriorating situation. But the three-day information isolation has changed many of their thoughts and now they have started doubting the King’s said intention. They are probably questioning themselves why the King needs to cut all the communication lines and close down the information channels if his motives are of good omen.

The Kathmandu Post began a new way to protest silently –writing editorial on a ‘very very light issue’ – ‘Appreciating Good Weather’ on sunny day. Kantipur is also following somehow same – has wrote editorials on protecting archaeological sites and development of archery game.

All the Indian news channels have been banned since yesterday and the BBC Nepali Service is cut off thus our only news sources are gossips and BBC/CNN which gives quite less priority of our news as many things of the their interest are happening (like Sudan genocide debate, Oil-for-Food program corruption report, Israel and Palestine and Dennis Rumsfeld saying he twice submitted his resignation). Continue reading…

The worst news of the day is yet to be fully confirmed. The BBC Radio reported that the security personnel entered the hostel of the Prithivi Narayan Multiple Campus in Pokhara on Tuesday night after the students initiated a protest rally and sounds of shooting were heard. Although the BBC said it was not clear what types of bullets were used, it said that more than 250 were injured and arrested.

Later, I heard a report that at least 15 have been shot dead. And, all the newspapers and FM stations outside the Valley have been forced to close down. It appears that the King wants no media at all.

More information isolation followed today as all the Indian news channels plus Nepal 1 TV was taken out of all the cables. And I heard that foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey today called all the foreign reporters and threatened them not to report negatively on Nepal’s issues which he called illegal. (the dieing bulb glows more). Continue reading…

I am writing this after watching news bulletin on the BBC World TV channel (there is no CNN). The BBC reporter at Kathmandu, Charles Haviland talked with the news anchor on a satellite phone and said that the ‘10 member government has been formed and most of them are the King’s allies.’ He also added that there has been reports of Maoists release by Prachanda who termed the move as ‘mediaeval feudalism’ and said the Maoists are ready to work with the ‘pro-people forces’.

The BBC news added that the King has been widely criticized for the move in home and abroad and ran a scroller saying that ‘US says deeply troubled by move’. Well, in fact yesterday, Indian foreign minister Natwar Singh talked on the matter with PM Manmohan Singh for an hour and later issued a release saying that India is deeply concerned with the move and demanded the well being of leaders under house arrest.

Yesterday night, after writing a portion of this, I watched a special program ‘Again Monarchy (Phir Rajtantra)’ in Aaj Tak channel which talked about everything – from how Gyanendra became the King to the aristocratic behaviours of Paras; from the Maoists problem with people’s suspect that the King was involved in the Royal Massacre.

This morning a through look at all the newspaper I got hold of confirmed that there is censorship in all but the largest publishing house, Kantipur Publications, was the one most feared. Continue reading…

Communications are still cut off. And the future of the country, people and our journalistic career look glum.

India has strongly come against the move as well as US, UK and UN. India’s PM Manmohan Singh’s decision to cancel the SAARC meeting starting Sunday, we believed, would hit the King hard. Despite the Foreign Secretary of India Shyam Saran quoted two reasons (the other being deteriorating situation in Dhaka, Bangladesh where the meeting has been scheduled), we were all unanimous that India do not want to share the same dais with the King as it would mean ‘support of coup’.

Indian newspapers, although were not available here, called the move coup, according to AFP and urged their government to go strongly against it. The UN, UK, Amnesty International all condemned the move in strong words as well as United States.

One of my friend at Kantipur daily told me, when we met on the road, that his office looked like a military barrack with army vehicles coming and going frequently and army men roaming around freely. They had made a visitor room in the TV building their office and are censoring everything. He called it a ‘psychological warfare’ against the biggest publishing house of the nation. Continue reading…

(Written at 10:30am, immediately after King Gyanendra finishes his address to the nation)

King Gyanendra on his ‘historical decision’ took all the executive power dismissing the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government in his address to the nation broadcasting by the Nepal Television at 10am NST today.

The 31-minute long recorded (and edited) address to the nation, the King criticizes the government, political parties and politicians; dismissed the Deuba government taking the executive power and promising ‘activation of multi-party democracy’ in three years; asked Maoists to lay down weapons and warned them of harsh consequences if they continue the terrorism and promised end of terrorism; end of corruption and sustainable development. Continue reading…

Morning shows the day: but it went all wrong today. Morning went fine before the King addresses to the nation and the whole day was spent amidst confusion.

At 9:30, I checked the internet for anything latest. KantipurOnline had a brief news about the address which was posted in Sajha.com’s Kurakani board, where somebody had also posted about the house-arrest of top leaders (I thought it might be true). NepalNews.com didn’t open up.

At exact 10:00am, the King’s address began. I had already known the government would be dismissed so wasn’t surprised at all for that. But was not prepared for his takeover of the executive power. It was as for many people a bit surprising.

I tried to connect to the Internet immediately after the speech but the dial-up networking said that there is no dial tone. I then looked at my cell phone which was saying no network and I understood that I have been cut off with rest of the world.

I went outside my home and saw the school children returning home as the schools were closed due to curfew rumors. I met a few people who were not let to cross the district border. Continue reading…