Media freedom cannot be abused: Chairman Basnet

 Chairman of the Press Council of Nepal, Balkrishna Basnet, has drawn the attention of all concerned not to misuse the media as a tool to push the country towards instability and anarchy.

He said that the council is monitoring YouTube and online media that are spreading irresponsible and baseless information.Some of them have done the work of giving baseless information to fulfill various interests by introducing the media. Chairman Basnet said in a program held at the council on Thursday that the media, which is a tool to push the society towards instability, is being prosecuted.

He informed that the council is engaged in a campaign to take action to the extent of taking away the cards of such journalists, as giving wrong and false information in a planned manner is an abuse of the freedom of the press.He also said that the public will not trust the media that abuses freedom.

YouTube and other social networks should always take care that they are not being operated by any wrong elements or gangs. It is a serious violation of press freedom to be circulated in such a way. In this case, the council intervenes, Chairman Basnet said while drawing attention to the orientation program with the owners and editors of the new online, YouTube media.

The Press Council has made a procedure to organize the YouTube medium and categorized it. Unregistered and objectionable, irresponsible networks are being prosecuted as criminal offences.

In the last 3 months, 49 different YouTube channels have come under the action of the council.

In the orientation program, Ram Prasad Dahal, the board member of the council, gave a presentation on the journalist code of conduct and Mahendra Singh, the monitoring officer, on the status of the communication guidelines.

The council has made the orientation class mandatory for the last 2 years to focus on following the code of conduct for the online media. In addition, the YouTube channel, which operates as a mass media, has also implemented a procedure to register and take a journalist code of conduct class.