Government prioritises restructuring of communications industry: Minister Sharma

Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, said the government has prioritised the formulation of laws and policies aiming to restructure the communications sector.

During her meeting with a delegation of journalists here on Friday, the Minister stressed the need for policy-level changes to see a transformation in the communications industry. "The ministry is working on revising the old laws and also coming up with additional laws requiring to reshape the communications sector."

As she said, discussions are going on the drafts of the bills of Mass Communications Authority, Media Council and Journalism Training Academy.

She took time to share with the delegation that online media were not recongised by the existing laws when their presence continued to grow. According to the government Spokesperson, the government is working to address this situation through amendments to some Nepal Act as it could take some time to bring specific acts.

Expressing her concerns over soaring incidents of cyber abuse in recent times, she said the government was working on the draft of directives at promoting healthy and safe usage of social media platforms. These regulations will primarily focus on raising awareness and encouraging self-regulation, she said.

"The government is serious about media strengthening and professional and physical safety of journalists," the government Spokesperson said.

She went on to say that advertising regulations had been revised to address concerns over the leakage of government advertisements. "These changes are expected to provide some relief to the media industry and support the implementation of provisions of the minimum wages for employees."

During the meeting, the delegation led by Sher Bahadur BK urged the government to protect small and self-employed media, ensure professional rights and physical safety of journalists, implement the minimum wages for them and launch programmes targeting capacity enhancement of journalists.