Press Council and struggle committee come close to agreement

Kathmandu, Dec 19 : Talks have initiated between the office-bearers of Press Council and struggle committee including the Kathmandu chapter of Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) that launched agitation against Press Council for biasness and irregularities in newspaper classification.

Shantaram Bidari, chair of FNJ Kathmandu chapter, shared the Council had summoned the latter for dialogue on Wednesday after agitating journalists padlocked the office of Council’s acting President Kishor Shrestha on 13 December. He said representatives from struggle committee had presented their issues in the first round of the talks.

The meeting was attended by Council member Chetanath Dhamala and chief officer Jhabindra Bhushal from Press Council and Deepak Pandey, President Bidari and FNJ Lalitpur and Bhaktapur Presidents, Gyan Prasad Poudel and Pushkar Budhathoki, on behalf of struggle committee. Both the sides have agreed to put forward their actions in a way that it would not hurt journalism sector and council’s trust.

It is shared today’s executive meeting of the Council will discuss the agenda of forming a committee to probe the classification of newspapers as per the demand of struggle committee.