Submit your Article

Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States and drafter of the Declaration of Independence, once said: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”  More than two centuries later, Jefferson’s words resonate even more deeply.

They underscore the paramount importance of press freedom in any democratic society.  In Nepal’s context, it is worth recalling Nepali Congress (NC) founding leader BP Koirala’s understanding of media freedom.  It is widely reported that Koirala welcomed journalists of all political and ideological stripes and even encouraged them to write critically about his own government.  This article explores the two broad dimensions of Nepal’s current media landscape: the growing threats to the media industry and why safeguarding press freedom is more urgent than ever.

Nepali media is confronting a multitude of threats, from political repression and physical attacks to shrinking revenues and rising disinformation. These are not isolated incidents but part of a growing pattern. Unfortunately, the society and many politicians continue to treat press freedom as a concern of the media fraternity alone. This is a dangerous misconception. When media freedom deteriorates, it affects not just journalists but the functioning of all domestic institutions.

The executive, legislature, judiciary and even international stakeholders should be alarmed by the decline in press freedom because it ultimately erodes public trust, transparency and accountability. Democracy and media freedom are symbiotic; one cannot survive without the other. Protecting media freedom has become more important today than ever due to democratic backsliding, digital autocracy, the spread of disinformation, geopolitical tensions and the global rise of authoritarian populism. 

From Europe to Africa and Asia, populist leaders are attacking the media. Populism thrives on emotion, lies, fake nationalism, anti-immigration rhetoric, attack on the state institutions and discrediting the mainstream independent media. As a recent study by the Reuters Institute stated, populist politicians around the world are increasingly able to bypass traditional journalism in favor of the friendly partisan media, personalities and influences who often get special access but rarely ask difficult questions, with many implicated in spreading false narrative or worse.

V cv In Nepal, the dual pressure from state and non-state actors are steadily weakening independent media. In the name of regulation, politicians are introducing restrictive laws designed to limit media freedom.  In several instances, politicians are discrediting traditional media for not aligning with their agendas. At the same time, advertising revenues are drying up with both audiences and advertisers migrating to digital platforms. This shift has left mainstream media struggling to sustain high-quality journalism. The situation is worsened by corporate interests, which often seek to undermine critical reporting that expose malpractices of the business houses. 

The Reuters Institute report states that engagement with traditional media sources such as TV, print and news websites continue to fall, while dependence on social media, video platforms and online aggregators is growing. Disinformation is another major challenge that Nepal’s media industry is struggling with. Malicious actors are not only spreading fake news to discredit independent media but also flooding the digital space with misleading content that confuses the people.

This is ultimately eroding people’s trust in journalism. Independent media is not only battling disinformation aimed at undermining their credibility but also bearing the crucial responsibility of combating the falsehoods that threaten society at large.

In the name of regulating social media, the government is introducing tighter laws, which have put it on a collision course with the media. People in the government are applying the same framework to traditional media (print, radio and television) as they do to online platforms and social media, despite their fundamentally different natures. Today, as democracy faces unprecedented challenges, the need for an independent and vibrant media has never been more urgent. 

Like elsewhere, people’s trust and confidence in democracy is dwindling, which is a cause for concern. From federal to local level, there are growing incidents of abuse of power by the elected representatives as well as bureaucrats. To hold them accountable, journalists must be allowed to work in an environment free from violence, threats and political interference. The state should support investigative journalism, not suppress it.  

Corruption, meanwhile, poses perhaps the greatest internal threat to Nepal’s democracy because it is wrecking the integrity, professionalism and image of the state institutions. Only an empowered media can investigate and expose such malpractices. However, journalists doing investigative stories are facing intimidation. The growing disinformation has emerged as a risk factor everywhere including in Nepal. 

A limited number of fact-checking organizations cannot tackle the problem of this magnitude, given their limited reach, resource and impact. In countries where the media’s economic health is sound, independent media are doing the fast-checking works. In our cases, big media houses are yet to work out a solution to stop a large-scale disinformation campaign.

The business sector has become both a victim and perpetrator of disinformation. Honest enterprises are being hurt by misleading narratives, while others are trying to discredit the media to protest their own unethical practices. Only a free and independent press can serve the larger interests of the business community by circulating accurate, credible information and promoting transparency in the market. 

Climate change, one of the most urgent global challenges, is also tightly connected to democracy which affects the economy, further contributes to inequality, leads to political instability and undermines people’s trust in the government.

Protecting natural resources and ensuring their responsible use is critical for both environmental sustainability and democratic governance. Here too, the media can play a vital role. Investigative reporting is crucial in holding those degrading the environment accountable and in pressuring governments to act responsibly. However, journalists covering climate issues are facing threats and safety concerns.  Efforts to combat the climate crisis will not be effective without a free press.

In conclusion, Nepal urgently needs a vibrant independent and fearless media to protect and strengthen its democracy. But, the worrying factor is political parties and their leaders. They once fought for democracy and press freedom, but are now trying to curtail it. They must remember a weakened media leads to a weakened democracy. Press freedom is not a favor to journalists, it is a necessary investment in the health of our democratic future. 

Nepali youths want to carve out a distinct identity of the country—other than that of the land of brave warriors—particularly in the field of information and communications technology (ICT).

Is the government ready to create a supportive environment for the realization of this mission?

This unanswered question sits uncomfortably among young dreamers, innovators and inventors at a time when a body of research has shown that the coming decades will be the age of Asia.
According to a report from the McKinsey Global Institute (2019), Asia, home to more than half of the world’s middle-class population, already accounts for over 50 percent of global GDP growth while the Asian Development Bank (ADB, 2023) forecasts that Asia-Pacific's sustained growth, driven by trade, technology and urbanization, will continue to reshape global power balances.
Located between two global economic powerhouses—China and India—Nepal has “great prospects” for economic collaboration and development lying ahead.  

Though it sounds a bit cliched, the government and other stakeholders should have an unwavering focus on ways to reap “benefits” from the two large markets.

Today’s youths dream of transforming Nepal, a member of the grouping of low-income countries, into a middle-income country (at least in a few years). Make no mistake: they are dreaming with eyes wide open, with a sense of eagerness and mission, and they are working quite hard to fulfill it.

Sprouting start-ups, firms and product/service enhancement facilities, especially in the field of ICT, are a living proof of their commitment to the mission. 
At a time when, according to reports, around 2,000 youths are leaving the country daily, growing businesses like these offer a glimmer of hope.

This begs a key question: Is the government really ready to accept, encourage, promote and develop this bubble of hope?

Action speaks louder than words, doesn’t it?

Thus far this year, the parliament has passed some important bills to promote youth enterprises such as the Bill to Amend Some Nepal Acts Related to Good Governance Promotion and Public Service Delivery (Amendment), 2024; Cooperatives Bill, 2024; Economic Procedure and Financial Responsibility (First Amendment) Bill, 2024; Privatization (First Amendment) Bill 2024 and Improvement of the Economic and Business Environment and Investment Promotion Bill, 2024, bringing cheers from the private sector and other stakeholders.

The recently-published fiscal policy of the government appears to be a small step in the right direction and let’s hope that the monetary policy will also power the start-ups and help give the gig economy a boost through measures like favorable interest rates.
Still, the roadblocks remain on this path with several studies and research papers highlighting the ambiguities and hurdles in policies, bills and articles related to business operations in Nepal.

What is the way out, then?  
Instead of bulky policies and controlling bills, relevant government authorities can create simple, easy and supervisory bills to remove these obstructions. 
And how about introducing start-up friendly policies, which can create a favorable business environment by opening the door for many opportunities within the country.
Michael Porter rightly says: Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity.

It is a given that invention and innovation are the only tools that can leapfrog the economy.

Looking back into the global growth and development trajectory, one finds that every developed country has almost the same story: They all began with invention and innovation in commodities, and achieved a competitive advantage in the international market. South Korea, Singapore, India, Bangladesh and Sweden are doing extremely well on this front, especially over the decade. Make no mistake: these two i-terms—invention and innovation—aren’t accidental things. Rather, they are the result of consistent efforts of many minds and hands.
There’s no reason why Nepali youths cannot achieve this feat and take the country to a new era—with a little help from all stakeholders, the government in particular. 

In the thin air of Upper Mustang, a camera trap clicks. Somewhere in 770,000 square miles of mountains that spread across a number of Asian countries—an area larger than Mexico—one of the world’s 4,000 remaining snow leopards has just walked past.

Finding that single image among thousands of photos captured by the camera trap used to take park rangers hours of manual review. Now it happens automatically, with the help of AI.

Snow leopards are known as the ghost of the mountains. They slip across international boundaries as easily as rocky ridges, leaving barely a paw print in snow that could melt by morning. Tracking these apex predators is essential to inform the protections of both the species and their habitats. It also means deploying camera traps across the world’s most rugged terrain, then drowning in the data they produce.

Nepal alone operates nearly 800 camera traps. Each generates thousands of images every few months. Every hour spent reviewing photos is an hour not spent in the field preventing poaching, managing wildfires, or working with communities.

To tackle the vast camera trap data, Tencent developed “Eye of the Species”, an AI model to enhance conservation efforts. The system identifies snow leopards from thousands of images with up to 98 percent accuracy—and it works offline in the world's most remote locations. The model doesn't just find snow leopards. It recognizes 286 species and counting, with plans to reach 2,000 by 2025.

Unlike traditional single-species recognition models, this model doesn’t require extensive data to learn new species, reducing setup costs by 70 percent. It makes it a scalable tool for broader wildlife conservation efforts across different regions and species.

Originally developed for snow leopard studies in China, the model has been adapted for use in Nepal. The Tencent team recently hosted a workshop with Nepal’s National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and China’s ShanShui Conservation Center to introduce this system to conservationists from Nepal, Mongolia, Pakistan, and other regions. The next time a camera clicks in the Himalayas, the rangers will be ready.

The cross-border cooperation mirrors the snow leopards themselves: conservation that ignores human boundaries to protect animals that never recognized them in the first place.

Yao Ma, Conservation Officer, Tencent Sustainable Social Value Organization said : The reason we focus on snow leopards is twofold. Snow leopard numbers, a strong indicator of climate change, are incredibly low. Secondly, their habitat spans multiple countries across some of the most remote and difficult terrain on earth.”
CP Pokharel, Conservation Director, National Trust for Nature Conservation said that  “AI could help us analyze data faster and more rigorously, picking out not just snow leopards but also prey species from massive image datasets.”

Apparently, most of the emergencies do not come with sirens blaring in a world in a state of perpetual flux, not even in a vital part of the rules-based international order protected by near-impregnable defenses. Even if they did, it is highly likely that our capable governments would appear ill-prepared when it comes to dealing with such contingencies. 

Barely two years after the 7 Oct 2023 attack on Israel that killed around 1200 people—including 10 Nepali students and saw the abduction of 250 others (including Bipin Joshi, a Nepali student)—this stark reality of our ill-preparedness in dealing with crisis situations, especially a swift rescue of Nepali nationals caught in adverse situations abroad, has come us a-haunting again. 

Escalating hostilities between arch-nemeses Iran and Israel have given rise to concerns over the safety and security of Nepali nationals in a restive Mideast—most of them migrant workers. According to some reports, Israel is home to 5000-7000 Nepali workers. Other than that, our government, in a typical fashion, does not have the exact number of Nepalis living in the restive region. 

Nothing out of the blue, right? 

In the wake of the renewed hostilities, the government is doing its bit to “ensure” the protection of Nepalis. Recently, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Arzu Rana Deuba, held a meeting with Israeli Ambassador to Nepal, Shmulik Arie Bass, where she asked the government of Israel to ensure their safety. The ambassador’s reply—that Nepalis in Israel were so far safe—must have provided a much-needed immediate relief to the government. 

Other than that, the government has directed Nepali ambassadors to Israel and Qatar, which is playing the role of a facilitator to de-escalate the Iran-Israel conflict, to remain vigilant regarding the safety of Nepali citizens in their respective regions.  

The government has also approached a number of countries to help with the rescue of stranded Nepalis, if they are planning to rescue their nationals anytime seen. 

That the government is not twiddling its thumbs in a crisis situation like this provides some relief. But these random activities also lay bare the lack of a credible plan for a swift rescue of Nepali nationals caught in crisis situations like wars, conflicts, natural disasters and domestic unrest abroad.

The sooner the government comes up with such a plan by allocating necessary means and resources, the better. 

But such a plan—and its execution—should not mark the end of the government’s responsibilities toward outmigrating Nepali nationals. In the long run, the government should channelize its energies on bringing to an end the exodus of Nepalis and tapping their boundless potentials for national progress and prosperity.