PM says he will not force Sthapit to resign

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that he will not force Motikazi Sthapit, a member of Judicial Council (JC), to resign from his position, reports Kantipur daily.
“It depends on you whether to resign or not in the context of change in government. I will not force you to resign. But you should cooperate,” Sthapit quoted PM as telling him during their meeting on Saturday.
“I told the PM that I am willing to help the government within the constitutional limits,” Sthapit said.
The controversy over the JC had erupted after Law Minister Dev Gurung demanded resignation of Sthapit – who was nominated to the position by the previous government but whose tenure is fixed for four years by constitution.
Thanks to the controversy, the JC meeting could not take place stalling the process of appointing three dozen judges.
The stalled process has hampered day-to-day judicial administration.
The Saturday’s meeting is said to have resolved the impasse clearing the way for the meeting of JC

Govt to give commitment to press freedom in parliament

The meeting between Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) on Sunday concluded with an agreement according to which the government would express commitment in the parliament towards protecting press freedom.
The government also promised the FNJ representatives that all 25 political parties represented in the constituent assembly (CA) would express a similar commitment towards press freedom in the house.
During the meeting, minister Mahara also pledged that Home Minister would issue a circular to administrations in all 75 districts to penalise all those attacking or threatening journalists and media houses.
The two sides agreed to take initiatives for publication of Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post dailies d from Biratnagar from Monday

Maoists-UML to give final shape to the agreements

The two major coalition partners – Maoists and the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) – are set to sit for a meeting again on Sunday in order to give final shape to the agreements they reached during Saturday’s marathon talks.
According to Maoist spokesperson Dinanath Sharma, the two parties will reach decisions on forming the various commissions like Commission of Inquiry on Disappeared Persons, Land Reforms Commission etc.
Likewise, the meeting will also clear the deck for filling vacant positions in constitutional bodies like Public Service Commission (PSC), Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Auditor General’s Office and so on.
The meeting is set to take place at Baluwatar.
On Sunday itself, the ruling parties are set to hold talks with main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) to break the deadlock emanating from the NC’s refusal to take part in parliamentary sessions unless the government fulfills its commitments to return seized properties and disband paramilitary structure of YCL, among others.

Nepal Television

Nepal Television (NTV) started as a project in January 1985, under the sixth development plan (1980-1985). NTV was established with the Slogan “Communication for Development” with a broad mission statement “Produce and telecast programs on educational, religious and cultural conservation to promote national unity, conserve heritage and promote national interest. Provision was made "to undertake feasibility study of the establishment of television in the country, to begin TV transmission service at selected places if found feasible from economic and technical standpoint". It began its experimental transmission for Katmandu valley in a very modest manner with VHS equipment and in the UHF band. In those days, there were only about 400 TV sets, the majority of which were used basically for video purposes. Some of these receivers were also used for receiving Doordarshan signals (Indian TV program). In those days its audience was about 2000 people and a 100-watt transmitter was set to cover Katmandu Valley during its experimental transmission. Nepal television started broadcasting news and educational as well as entertainment programs regularly from 29th December 1985. At that time NTV lacked professional program production facilities and was using the VHS format producing and transmitting programs. During the SAARC Summit in 1987, NTV acquired the professional Umatic high band for program production through its resources. A limited number of professionals editing system, studio equipment such as vision mixer, cameras were purchased from Japan. As the demand of program producers and news crew, NTV acquired some more editing system and cameras for electronic newsgatherings (ENG) as well as Electronic Field production (EFP)
In February 1986, it became a full-fledged Corporation under the Communication Corporation Act 2028. Established as an electronic media, NTV is one of the most effective mass communication media of Nepal. Most of the people of the country live in remote areas and are illiterate, poor and away from modern communication. NTV is the only effective media to relay the message like Educational, Health, Agricultural, Sanitation, and Human rights etc. to those people. Information makes people conscious about development, health, human rights etc. It also helps to preserve and promote the country's culture.
NTV has started its broadcasting via satellite from 20th Ashad 2058 (4th July 2001). The objective of satellite transmission is to upgrade the signal quality of existing terrestrial relay stations to have countrywide expansion and makes signal available outside the country as well. It is expensive and beyond capacity of average Nepalese citizen to receive the signal by setting the TVRO to each and every household. Hence, NTV is planning to install TV Transmitters with TVRO in Various parts of the country to access NTV signal by simple receiving system (Yagi antenna).
After accessing to the satellite the signal of NTV is available outside Nepal in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Greece, Hong Kong, India (Mid Northern part), Iran, Iraq, Japan, Laos (Northern Part), Mongolia, Most parts of Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand (Northern Part), Turkey and Vietnam (Northern Part).
At present NTV signal is up-linked from Sagarmatha Earth Station of Nepal Telecommunication Corporation (NTC). The signal is sent to the earth station through optical fiber link from the transmitting studio at Singh Durbar. NTV is going to operate its second channel (Metro) soon, under Chinese grant. This project Consists of 5 KW transmitter with transmitting tower of 72 meters height and a studio complex.