Kathmandu : Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma shared that the government was preparing to streamline public welfare and proportional advertisement through a one-door policy.

Inaugurating the 23rd annual general assembly of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) here today, Minister Sharma divulged that the government was going to formulate a policy to manage those advertisements through the Common Minimum Programme.

According to Minister Sharma, her ministry had initiated the process for the same. “The government is adopting measures and thus is cutting down on unnecessary expenses,” she informed.

The Minister expressed her confidence that the management of advertisements would address the problems of the journalists not getting minimum remunerations.

“The advertisement that is to be published in Jajarkot district is printed in the newspaper in Kathmandu. It is inappropriate to take away money by showing every advertisement. It should not be the case. Let’s consider an amendment in the regulations to prevent such tendency,” Minister Sharma said.

Stating that journalism is the beauty of democracy, the minister sought the resolution of problems in media through a collective discussion. “The trend of joining journalism just for fulfilling one’s hobby and regretting later is not good. This is bad for democracy,” she said.

She pledged to facilitate in finding land for the construction of a building for the Kathmandu section of the Federation of Nepali Journalists.

Similarly, the President of the FNJ, Kathmandu section, Surya Subedi drew the attention of the minister to government advertisements given to media and cleaning and renewing FNJ memberships and providing free health service to working journalists. “The Advertisement Board Nepal is more into regulating journalists. Media continue to be on the verge of closure until the situation of favouring those in power for media advertisements comes to an end,” he said.

On the occasion, senior journalist Kishor Nepal was honoured with the ‘Ideal Journalism Award, 2079’. The award was set up by the FNJ, Kathmandu chapter. (RSS)