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Worrying that the conflict era cases of crimes against journalists in Nepal would remain unsolved, Laxman Datt Pant, Chairperson of Media Action Nepal (MAN), who also co-chairs the Media Freedom Coalition-Consultative Network (MFC-CN), has called on the government of Nepal to abide by its press freedom commitments.

He also reminded that the government should logically conclude Nepal’s transitional justice in line with Nepal’s international obligations and Supreme Court’s orders and precedents.

Meanwhile, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma (Koirala) has said that the government is committed to preserving freedom of expression and will neither introduce nor enact any laws aimed at stifling press freedom

"The present government strongly believes in the freedom of the press and does not seek to restrict it,” Sharma said, “The media should be accountable, not controlled.”

Pant and Sharma made these remarks at the roundtable discussion organised by Media Action Nepal (MAN) on Tuesday in Kathmandu to commemorate the World Press Freedom Day that falls on May 3.

Speaking at the event, the Minister also expressed the government’s willingness to sit and discuss media laws with the relevant stakeholders and urged everyone to come together to review the laws, both existing and in the pipeline, in line with the constitutional mandate.

“But the problem is that the parliament has not been able to function due to the ongoing obstruction by the opposition,” Sharma said. “This has affected the government’s ability to work as desired.”

Sharma also worried that the digital age had raised safety challenges for both journalists and news sources and stressed the need to take steps to address these challenges.

MAN Chairperson Pant said that while the press freedom situation was better in Nepal than our South Asian countries, it was still far from perfect and we needed to conform to the international instruments to which Nepal is a state party to.

He also called out media organisations like the Press Council Nepal and the Federation of Nepali Journalists for going beyond their mandate and carrying out populist activities.

Furthermore, Pant questioned the organisations’ involvement in the state apparatus and asked how they could claim to be unaware about the various anti-freedom of speech laws introduced by the government while sitting in the consultative and recommendation-giving bodies.

This year, the World Press Freedom Day was marked with the theme ‘Journalism under digital siege.’

Participants in Friday’s discussion, which included Gogan Bahadur Hamal, Director general of the Department of Information and Broadcasting; Jhabidra Bhusal, chief officer of Press Council Nepal; Dr. Kundan Aryal, associate professor at the Central Department of Journalism at Tribhuvan University and officials from other media and digital rights organisations, also focused on the topic.

Press Council’s Bhusal shared that our laws and policies had not kept pace with the advancements in technology and reminded everyone that freedom of expression was not absolute and more needed to be done to combat misuse of new media.

Meanwhile, Hamal said that technological progress would not stop for anyone and requested the media to use it positively.

He also reiterated Minister Sharma’s point and said that the government was ready to work with all to strengthen press freedom.

Nepal reported 32 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 504 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 29 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 590 people underwent antigen tests, of which three were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 23 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 217 active cases in the country.

Muslims across the country are celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr with zest and zeal today.

The great festival of the Islamic community is being observed with great gaiety and gusto by reciting special Namaz, offering prayers in mosque, receiving blessings from the elders and giving blessings to juniors. 

The festival, which marks the conclusion of a month-long fasting of the Muslims during the month of Ramadan, falls on the first day of the tenth month according to the Arabic calendar. 

In Nepal, the festival is being observed today as the new moon-sighting on the last day of the ninth month on Sunday evening.

On this day, Muslims devotes converge mainly in the mosque or any outdoor location in the early morning for Edi prayer and break their fast feasting on delicacies. 

Families and friends gather to mark the end of a month-long fast 'Ramadan' and exchange Eid Mubarak (greetings) as well as gifts. A spirit of generosity is encouraged hence they give alms to the poor. The celebration lasts up to three days in general. 

The government has declared a public holiday today on this occasion.

The local wind, low pressure system developed from Uttar Pradesh to the flatlands of West Bengal in India and the Westerly wind have their influence in Nepal at present.

The Meteorological Forecasting Division has said the weather is partly to generally cloudy throughout the country due to the impact of this weather system with light rain taking place at one or two places of Province no 1.

It will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly region towards the afternoon while remaining generally fair in the rest of the parts of the country. There are chances of light to moderate rainfall accompanied by thunder and lightning at few places of the hilly region.

The weather will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly region and partly cloudy in the remaining areas tonight with chances of light rainfall accompanied by thunder and lightning at some places of Province no 1, Lumbini province and Gandaki province, and at few places of the rest of the provinces.

The weather in the federal capital, Kathmandu, is fair with warm sunshine since the morning. According to the Division, Kathmandu's maximum temperature was 28.7 degrees Celsius and minimum 16 degrees Celsius.

The rainfall in Kathmandu was measured at 43.7 millimetres on the last 24 hours.