KATHMANDU, Oct 9 - King Gyanendra Sunday promulgated an ordinance aimed at amending the existing press laws in the country.
The ordinance promulgated today is the "Ordinance amending some Nepal Act related to Media-2062".

It is said that the ordinance has introduced the controversial press law reportedly passed by the Cabinet some four months ago to curb press freedom in Nepal.

The controversial press law, which the government could not introduce back then following immense pressure from national and international communities, prohibits an organization or individual from receiving licenses to operate radio, television and newspapers. Those who have already been granted licenses to operate all the three media previously must choose any two within a year.

It also contained new legal provisions to prohibit any news item that ?causes hatred or disrespect? to the king and members of the royal family, as opposed to only the king previously.

Other new provisions which the government intended to introduce through the controversial press law aimed at banning the importing of foreign publications that contain prohibited information and news and barring FM stations from broadcasting news-related programmes.

Fines and punishment for those found violating the laws had also been increased in the proposed press law. It also had provision for fining editors or publishers publishing "materials deemed to be falling under banned items" up to Rs.100,000, instead of the previous Rs.10,000. Similarly, anyone publishing, translating and importing banned items would be liable to face a fine 10 times more than the present amount of Rs.50,000.

This is crazy!! if this is the case than whats the point of having media in the country?? who shall we trust and who not??

Sometimes, it really makes me wonder if Gyanendra studied at Edinburgh in the UK or some remote village school in Nepal. Just look at what he is doing?

UK is the most democratic country in the world where even the layman can and do excercise the right to the fullest. In the UK, the royals are NOT above the system but apart because the Queen just serves as the nominal head and has no active role in the government. There the constitution is amended as need arises so as to have the most effective and people centered government. Our King surely must have realized that the UK is developed not because of the royalist but because of the people themselves. But, why the hell is he introducing just the opposite kind of system in our country. Can he see that respect can't be demanded but only commanded. The reason why he introduced the press laws is because of the royalist vampires who want to suck the blood of the innocent nepalis. Bastards! All the king wants to hear is "bhajans" sung by the bhajan mandalis. that means our whole Nepal is turn into some sort of a "gyanendra bhajan sangeet bishwovidhyalaya".

The press laws: HECK NO......... It's just a piece of crap. And, not to mention it's paradoxical in itself. It says that one organizations can't have hold of more than more then two media forms. If so why is the government gaining hold of Radio Nepal, Nepal Television & The Gorkhapatra with the Rising Nepal.

No matter how much they print those laws and try to make it public we should make "proper" use of such leaflets and use it as a toilet paper to block the sewage ssytem of ktm.

Whole of Gyane's family is a piece of crap. they want to severly punish those who write against them. But, paras not even an iota of respect from a five yeaerold. everybody knows he is a hatyara, hutihara, disco freak, show-off motorcyclist which he bought from our tax money, & a pathetic loseer........to sum if up he is good for nothing. let alone Crown Prince. Just ask him aoubt anything in Politics..........

Those bastards are surely digging their own grave. It's nice that one day Kingdom of Nepal will be "Republic of Nepal". That day is not very far...............

I really like the fact that this law:

prohibits an organization or individual from receiving licenses to operate radio, television and newspapers.

However, I don't like the fact that this law:

prohibit any news item that "causes hatred or disrespect" to the king and members of the royal family, as opposed to only the king previously.
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Catch 22, I agree with you completely. The sole reason they want to ban media is that they want to do whatever they like with Nepal and Nepali. 100% of present regime is made of criminals.
This new ordinance is targeted against democratic forces only. Gyane is unable to ban maoist media. Out of this frustration, he is trying to trample democratic media, which has pen as its only weapon. It seems that he understands the language of gun only.

This law is very good...... it will speed up the revolution.

"This law is very good...... it will speed up the revolution. "

What revolution? Do you mean maoist revolution? Darshankala, since when did you start standing for the maoists and the terrorists? Maoists are the ones who believe in suppressing any dissident voices. Can you please clarify?

On another note, King G is a real smart man. He promised that he will curb corruption and he has a great solution for our country. If you cannot stop yourself and your ministers from getting drowned in corruption, shut up the media who protest against it. Why didn't Girija think about such a brilliant idea. No wonder Girija is a hawaldar and King G is you know what.

Do not even need to talk about King G's Minimi or Udaya Hussein of Nepal. Oops, I mean Paras.

Ha ha... why the hell should I support Maoists when I advocate for PEACE in NEpal all the time, which is evident from my posting here in sjhaland.

With this new controversial press law, protesting parties, ournalists, and civic societies have got one more item to protest about, one more reason to knock the doors of nepalese, and one more reason to intensify their so-caled protests.

But, will they?

We have to thank Gyane for creating conducive environment for these so-caled political parties to revolt. This will test the courage of those parties.... Gyane is challenging them. He already added one more step - municipalities election.

Gyane is giving so much opportunities to these political parties to display their leaderships.. haha.

In political science terminology Maoist are not terrorist in any sense. They are REVOLUNATARIES! A political party who is fighting for a political causes can not be labelled as a terrorist.

Do not you guys, Pats and Darshankaka, feel that Nepali People have already started to count down the last days of the monarchy in Nepal ?

Yo Moron Ignitor,
Maoist are Revolutionaries ? Are you fuggin out of yo mind ? Communism is dead in the world. The only two communist countries that are still standing are on the verge of colapse. And you want to call these MORONS revolutionaries for trying to bring in a form of govt that has failed everywhere else ? REMEMBER REVOLUTIONARIES DO NOT KILL INOCENT PEOPLE OR USE THEM AS HUMAN SHIELD EITHER.
I do not like the fact that the freedom of speech for the press has been compromised. People should be able to say what ever they want. But at the same time its been pretty hard to differentiate between facts and propoganda. So I really don't know know who to support here. I think poeple should be able to speak freely whether they agree or disagree with Gyaney( I think he is fuggin scared). But at the same time I do not like the way these politicians use the media for their personal benefit either. Its a two edged sword so I take the 5th(right in the middle). he he

Man All I can say is;

Pashupathi Nath le hamro rakshya garun!..

Jay Nepal..