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Police have recovered 169 kg marijuana in an abandoned state in Biratnagar on Thursday.

DSP Gyanendra Bahadur Basnet of the District Police Office, Morang said that the marijuana was found at Gujar Tole in Biratnagar Metropolitan City-17.

According to him, a joint team of the District Police Office, Morang and the Area Police Office, Rani recovered the marijuana at around 11 pm yesterday.

The contraband drug has been kept at the Area PolicE Office, Rani for necessary investigation.

The weather will be completely cloudy throughout the country today, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. The Department said the monsoon wind has its influence across the country at present.  

There are chances of heavy rainfall at one or two places of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim Provinces towards the afternoon today and it will be completely cloudy throughout the country tonight. There is a possibility of heavy rain at one or two places of Koshi and Gandaki Provinces tonight, the Department stated.

Stating that there is a possibility of heavy rainfall occurring at one or two places of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim Provinces in the next 24 hours, the Department has urged people to be safe from the possible debris flow and risk or damage of flooding and landslide in these areas.

The Department also warned of the heavy precipitation possibly having partial impact on the daily life of the people including on agriculture, health, tourism, mountaineering, road and air transport in these places.

News editors are those who validate and add value to news content before it is disseminated and hence editorial freedom is essential to promote responsible journalism, said participants of a program organized in Kathmandu on Wednesday. 

Editors from different media houses: radio, TV, online, and news agencies who gathered to discuss 'Dimensions of the journalist code of conduct in news editing' were univocal on focusing on the capacity enhancement of editors, while guaranteeing editorial freedom to keep the charm of journalism intact.

Speaking at the program hosted by Press Council Nepal (PCN), its Chair Balkrishna Basnet, said editorial freedom is a must in newsrooms to strengthen journalism.

He urged journalists including editors to filter out information amidst the floods of information, misinformation, and disinformation from social networking sites and use them as the news source in the media contents. Information and news are different things and they should be rightly dealt with, he added.

Basnet advised every media house to also prepare an internal code of conduct and implement it to produce decent and credible journalistic products.

Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) Chair Bipul Pokhrel said editing is a skill which should be properly reflected in the news content. Sharing his experiences in his journalism career, he said fact-checking is an indispensable part of the editing section to enhance the credibility of news content. "Editing is all about the verification of information, filtering of information, fact-checking, proofreading, copywriting, adding creativity, and so on."

The journalist leader said the editing chamber serves a fusion of beats, and additional skills are necessary to handle this effectively and efficiently.

He took time to highlight the need for coordination between the reporting and editing sections to produce quality products. He advised editors to keep themselves updated about the developments globally and know skills about the judicious use of technology to add value to the contexts before the dissemination.

 Voices of editors

The participants utilized the forum to share experiences and challenges they are bound to deal with in the newsroom.                                                                     

Editing is sometimes negatively correlated with a 'job of butchery ' which normally does not establish a sound relationship between reporting and the editing sections, they complained. 

Some of them complained of increasing corporate and marketing interests in the editing section, underscoring the need for the promotion of editorial freedom while some others said they sometimes feel discomfort chasing diverse content across multiple beats.

They were univocal that editing needs a specific skill and editors should have ample opportunities for sharpening their skills time and again. "Regular capacity enhancement opportunities for editors are warranted."

They shared about the increased workload in editing especially after the financial challenges in media with COVID-19 which led to the shrinking of media in terms of workforce.

Moreover, the Press Council Nepal was advised to accord priority to gender sensitization in newsrooms. They stressed the importance of motivating and empowering editors who do the role of 'gatekeepers' in news content but often work behind the scenes.

"Working in the news desk entails a responsibility that leaves no room for error, making it a position deserving of rewards, enhanced facilities, opportunities, and continuous motivation for editors," they asserted.

The government has for the first time prepared a concept paper on the use and practice of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The government developed the concept paper to determine the basis for formulating the related policy and laws on the use and operation of AI in the context of the country lacking these and in view of the growing use and development of AI the world over.

The technical committee constituted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology prepared the concept paper after nearly five months' study.

The Ministry had formed a five-member technical committee with Joint Secretary Anil Kumar Dutta as its coordinator as directed by Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma.

Ministry Under-Secretary Narayan Timilsina, Information Technology Director at the Ministry's Information Technology Department, Pabitra Dangol and Lecturer at the Institute of Engineering Dr Baburam Dawadi are the members of the committee while the Ministry's computer engineer Surya Prakash Upadhyay is the member-secretary.

The technical committee was formed on January 19. The committee has prepared a report on the concept paper and presented the same to the Ministry.

The report has made recommendations to the government to enact the necessary policy, laws and procedures for the development, use and regulation of AI.

Pointing out the need of addressing the issues of cyber security, data protection and privacy in policy-level, the report suggested to formulate national policy related to AI, to make national strategy, framework of data protection along with legal bases for the use of AI and the privacy of users, to determine standard compatible with international standard of policies and laws incorporated in data safety and protection.

Similarly, Under-Secretary of the Ministry and member of Concept Paper Preparation Technical Committee, Timilsina shared that the report suggested to build integrated structure to exchange AI related information by developing integrated national portal, forward the research, development and use on the issue with priority, to run programs to accelerate use of AI.

"A strategy should be taken to promote privacy protection, transparency and accountability, research on development and promotion of use of AI as well as increasing investment and collaboration", reads the report.

The concerned   sectors should keep the development and promotion of use of AI in their policies, strategies and programs in priority for the same, the report reads.