Kathmandu: Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, has said the government has brought Public Service Broadcasting Bill to make the government owned media professional and accountable towards people.
At a discussion on the theme ‘Public Service Broadcasting Bill’ in the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee under the House of Representatives held on Monday, Minister Sharma shared that the proposed bill was introduced with the concept that public media should work as the bridge between the people and government in an independent manner.
“We have been frequently saying that the government-owned media should be accountable and responsible to the people”, she mentioned.
Minister Sharma expected suggestions from the Committee in course of amendment to the bill. “The bill has been introduced with an objective of merging Radio Nepal and Nepal Television and making government-owned media responsible towards the people after further advancing their capacity”, she stres
sed.
The Communications Minister explained that the government has made preparation to present the bill in coming Parliament session scheduled to take place on February 5.
Lawmakers who registered amendment proposals to the bill expressed the view that the public media should be made independent, professional and accountable.
Lawmakers, including Pradeep Poudel, Mahesh Kumar Bartaula, Raghuji Panta, Chandra Bhandari, Madhav Sapkota, Devendra Poudel, Sunita Baral, Suana Shrestha, Toshima Karki, Prem Suwal, Narayani Sharma and Dipa Sharma among others laid emphasis on the need of making the media accountable to the people.
Similarly, Committee Chairperson Bhanu Bhakta Joshi stressed the need of endorsing the bill received in the Committee soon.
The bill would be forwarded for clause-wise discussion from Tuesday’s meeting, he said.
Source: National News Agency Nepal