Nepal Media Peace Forum Discusses Resolution to Overcome Obstacles Blocking Peace Journalismin the Pandemic

The 4th & 5th Nepal media peace forum, Voice of Press (V.O.P) was held online with the attendance of around 14 Nepalese journalists on July 24 and August 14, respectively. With the title of “Obstacles Blocking Peace Journalism and Practical Solutions to Overcome in the Pandemic.”, the journalists shared difficulties as well as challenges faced because of the pandemic in implementing peace journalism and discussed the effective ways to resolve the issue based on the combined efforts and shared understanding.

According to the participated jouranlists, Nepal's media industry is facing a major crisis due to difficulties including a prolonged pandemic, lack of government interest and policy, economic recession, lack of professional education, information, technology and manpower. Solutions were presented such asimproved awareness of peace journalism, safety environment and protection devices, education and training for peace journalism, and communication with various sectors.

The 4th forum, which was held as the first session, aimed to understand the background of Nepali peace journalism and discuss obstacles practicing peace journalism in Nepal. The 5th forum was targeted towards the discussion of practical solutions to overcome obstacles through dialogues among journalists.

According to Ms. Nanu Maiya Khadka, Media Monitoring Coordinator of Freedom Forum Nepal (Media NGO in Nepal), “During the pandemic, about 3,190 journalists lost their jobs, and many didn't receive their salary. Lack of news room’s preparedness for disaster or crisis reporting is the top reason why journalists struggle with exploring the new area of reporting including the peace journalism. Not only that from the year 2020, the increasing violence against the journalist also hampers their devotion towards their work. Journalists are even willing to risk their life, but the incidents of press freedom violations gone unnoticed affect their work." As a way to address this situation, she said “That’s why supporting the journalists with the national and regional safety gears, safety precautions, safety measures in national and local level are also one of the motivations for them to go and work in the field”. 

“Lack of awareness and availability of peace contents were also the problems,” Mr. Lucky Chaudhary, a journalist of Gorkhapatra and Hamar Pahura, added.

Mr. Ranjan Jha, the executive editor of Avenues TV, said “The major obstacles for Nepalese media to grow up also affects the practice of peace journalism. They are; lack of skilled manpower, lack of fund, lack of technology, lack of support from civil society and government, limited market scale and unfair competitions among media.”

After the first session, the Nepalese journalists gathered again on August 14 for the 5^th V.O.P. forum to seek feasible solutions to overcome the obstacle of peace journalism in Nepal.

Mr. Bashant Khadka, journalist of Nagarik Daily stated, "We have to remove all the blocks through conducting proper training, conducting research and discussing a contemporary issue about peace journalism. The most important thing is that journalists should be self-aware about peace journalism."

“Journalism is not only informing people, it is a sector that gives shape and transforms the society. Starting from training to identify and present the peace issues, safety environment and system should be supported for working securely during the pandemic.” Mr. Ranjan Jha, the executive editor of Avenues TV emphasized on the training to media management for the placement of peace news.

Director of HWPL Public Relations for Asia, Alice Kim emphasized that “we need to establish a peaceful atmosphere and culture that guarantee freemdom and safety of the press so that Nepali journalists can freely spread peace news. Also journalists need to hear the advices and opinions of citizens and experts from various backgrounds.” In addition to this, Ms. Kim encouraged to participate in the V.O.P online media forum regularly and introduced MAGP (Media Association for Global Peace, http://magp.org) as a global peace reporting platform without any pressure from the media and authority.

This forum was hosted by Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), an international non-governmental peace organization, in consultative status with the UN ECOSOC and associated with the UN DGC.

V.O.P is a place of communication and international media network where journalists from all over the world can voluntarily participate and speak out for freedom of media and peace journalism. Until now, by 193 journalists from about 22 countries including Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hongkong, Taiwan, Ukraine, Nigeria, etc. have participated. It was the first online forum held in Nepal after a COVID 19 break out.