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VOL. 28, NO. 23, March 06, 2009 (Falgun 23 2065)
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CA IN MEDIA
Less On Content
A research conducted on the coverage of five national dailies show that there is lesser coverage of CA issues content-wise
By A CORRESPONDENT
Although Constituent Assembly is regarded as main agenda of the country, the coverage of five national dailies shows otherwise. Conducted for Consortium of Constitutional Experts (CONCOE) by journalist Keshab Poudel, the research study revealed that the coverage of CA in media is low in terms of quality as well as quantity.
Although constitution making is a number one priority area of the country, the space given to the constituent assembly issues is still not enough as it is sharing the spaces with other issues like everyday politics, economics, entertainment and sports. In an interaction organized to discuss on the report, journalists, lawyers and political scientist stressed that the media's role is very important to disseminate the information.
“Although the time was short, this study indicated the areas of coverage by various national daily and their trends,” said Convener of CONCOE Dr. Surya Dhungel. “Media has important role to play in the future of constitution making process.”
CONCOE is a network of Nepalese constitutional resource persons. It is an effort to establish a close working relationship with Nepali jurists and practitioners, especially constitutional and legal experts from the state institutions, leading political parties, NGOs and INGOs, including international experts, to help the Constituent Assembly draft a new Constitution for Nepal.
CONCOE aims to deconstruct the technical and scientific exercises in the Constituent Assembly and streamline them for fruitful discussions and debates.
“This study is just a beginning and it needs to go into more detail and depth. We are ready to provide different kinds of support involved in the constitution making process,” said Dr. Bipin Adhikari, national program manager of CONCOE.
Based on the coverage in five broadsheet national daily newspapers, Gorkhapatra, Nepal Samacharpatra, Rajdhani, Kantipur and The Himalayan Times, the study aimed to find out weaknesses and strengths of the media coverage on the Constituent Assembly and discuss the matters with the media personnel on those issues.
“After reading the study, I find that media are not so much concerned about their own right Freedom of Press. I don’t know how they will defend other’s right,” said Badri Bahadur Karki, senior advocates and chairman of SCOPE.
However, the coverage showed there were enough hopeful signs for optimism about the quality of news and analysis in coming days when the process of constitution making intensifies.
“Covering Constituent Assembly and constitution is a very complicated process. We need the support from the experts to do extensive coverage,” said senior journalist associated with Kantipur, Hari Bahadur Thapa.
After analyzing a total of 6047 news items including features, editorials and letters to the editors published in five daily newspapers during the period 14 to 28 January, it was indicative that the news regarding the constitution making got the largest space at 176 news items followed by State Restructuring and Federalism at 111.
“This study has raised some fundamental questions regarding the questions of constitution making,” said Ganesh Bhatta, constitutional lawyer and vice president of SCOPE.
During the two weeks period, Nepal Samacharpatra published 986 total news items in the paper but there were 81 news items related to the constituent assembly and Rajdhani published 1256 news items with 99 news items related to the constituent assembly and Himalayan Times (English) published 1035 news items with 42 items related to Constituent Assembly.
Gorkhapatra published 1035 news items with 89 items related to Constituent Assembly. Kantipur daily published 1329 items with 90 items related to Constituent Assembly.
“This is very short period of time to study on such a vast issue of constituent assembly but and what the results come out helps to know the state of coverage,” said Gehendra Lal Malla, general secretary of SCOPE.
Among the published items, the features and editorials were more substantive whereas the news items were largely related to the formal activities like the speech of prime minister, ministers and other political leaders.
“As the regulation of Constituent Assembly gives access to media in all places, press needs to attend all the meeting and disseminate information to the people,” said constitutional lawyer Tika Ram Bhattarai. “Media needs to be alert to stop misuse of the Constituent Assembly by any particular party.”
Although the coverage is yet to intensify, one of the positive side was that the news items were reported from all parts of Nepal including the activities in remote parts of the country.
