citizen journalism

Day by day the number of bloggers increasing in Nepal. Every student had started blog.They improve their writing and they get many more knowledge by the help of blog.so i started blog.I wrote about it in 'YUVAMANCH' magazine in 2064 chaitra(2008) .Dinesh wagle an earlier blogger of Nepal ,i post his article in my blog.
editor www.raulestreetjournal.blogspot.com

New kind of journalism in Nepal
By Dinesh Wagle
Wagle’s Web Log
Since the government order following the Royal Proclamation suspended the civil liberties, among others, we were in a great dilemma…as to what exactly to write and not to write in the paper, Kantipur, of which I am a reporter, and well, at times, an editorial writer too.
All reporters were looking towards Narayan Wagle, the Editor. I think that day, that moment was one of his decisive moments in his life, in his career as a journalist and as an Editor. Dito with Prateek Pradhan, Editor of the Kathmandu Post, sister publication of Kantipur. It was rumored that Editors of several newspapers were summoned to the palace and given instructions, if not intimidated, as to how they should go in the days to come. Some Editors were even threatned of their life if they dared to go against the government wish. As New York Times reportes in it’s Feb 7 issue that “the king’s press secretary told some editors last week that he would not be able to help if the military decided to “disappear” them for a few hours, according to one editor who spoke on condition of anonymity.”
I saw Kanak Mani Dixit, publisher of Himal Khabarpatrika Magazine and Rajendra Dahal, Editor of the same magazine visiting the offices of Kantipur Publications. Communication was totally disrupted and Editors badly needed to consult eachother at that time, I guessed. [In the same evening, Kanak gave a powerful comment to BBC’s Nepali Service. He was strongly against Royal move. I liked him and his comment and thought, from tomorrow, BBC Nepali Service will be taken off air from various FM stations aound the country. That is exactly what happened the following day and FMs are now barred from broadcasting anykind of news.]I was also confused. I hadn’t faced such situation before. I belong to the breed of journalists who started their carreer in a democratic society, who were raised in a democratic environment. As of now, after 10 days, I am learning to live and behave in a new atmosphere/situation.
It was not unusual, in any way, for thousands of readers of Kantipur, Nepal’s most influential and largest circulated daily, to expect a hard hitting and opinionated front-page editorial on the (well, in fact blasting the) Royal Takeover. But since the basic rights were suspended, the paper, its management and the editor couldn’t have risked the future of the newspaper and hundreds of jobs provided by the publication. Then came my utility.
Correctly sensing and judging the situation, Narayan Walge, editor, summoned me to give this order: “Dinesh, write an editorial on Charumati.” In Kantipur, reporters are encouraged to write articles and editorials on their respected field of reporting. On the very same day, an article written by me about a dance-drama appeared on the Arts and Style section of the daily. The dance-drama was based on Emperor Ashoka’s Nepal visit and his daughter Charumati’s love affair with a Nepali hunk. Satya Mohan Joshi, 85, the legendry writer and culture expert directed the ballet. So, the issue itself was perfectly suitable for an editorial.Here I go… Hey folks out there at New York Times or the Guardian, don’t laugh at me. We are habituated with that kind of journalism where, not so long ago, a single man would be a publisher, reporter, editor and a hawker. The situation is slowly changing after the arrival of big newspapers with large number of staffs. But we still have long way to go to have a separate department of editorial writers who are gray-haired and expert on what they editorialize.
I wrote the editorial on the ballet. When it was published, people were kind of surprised and shocked to read that peace. As I said already, they wanted an editorial about the Royal decision. So, many of the readers still read the write-up expecting that the editorial, in some way of other, might satire about the event. The topics themselves were not unsuitable for the editorial but the timing made them so.
The next day’s editorial dealt with how to internationalize out archery. Then followed a peace about Nepali cricket. All subjects, in my opinion, were suitable for an editorial but people expected different topics on that situation. Kathmandu Post ran an editorial about socks: what kinds of socks to wear, which color and brand etc. Nepali Times, a weekly, wrote about the sudden fall of trees in the city and called upon the concerned authorities to restore the greenery in the valley.
Now, international media including BBC World Service started reading between the lines. They saw a kind of revolt, hidden meaning in those editorials. The Post’s headline was “Socks in the Society”. Was that metaphoric? Well, for some, yes. For many, all those odd editorials were metaphoric. They were speaking the papers disapproval of what Kind did a day ago…
Political reporters in different media, including Kantipur, were joking that they will be jobless in a few days if the situation continues. Some columnists were of the opinion that they won’t be able to continue their column in future. Many columns, including ‘Peepalbot.com’ of Narayan Wagle in Kantipur are still off the pages. Even satirical column like that of ‘Under my Hat’ (Nepali Times) of Kunda Dixit seem to have sensored.
I have slightly different opinion on this regard. I think that this (restriction) will help the Nepali journalism on the long run. Do I seem like a reactionary? Sorry, if I did. I am a democrat by heart and support multiparty democracy system in the country. That will help expand journalism for sure. But the current restrictions over political reporting will help us to find different topics, social ones that are directly related to readers…to people. Why write or publish repeated interviews of ‘corrupt’ leaders as Kusum suggested in his letter? Lets write about sports, lets write about village life, about peoples plight.
Political freedom is the ultimate goal of Nepal and Nepalis. No one can block that from coming in to Nepal. Even King, in his TV address, has repeatedly promised to restore multi-party democracy in Nepal. So, let’s not worry about that guys. Now, in the mean time, lets try to write on other topics…. By Dinesh WagleWagle’s Web Log
Since the government order following the Royal Proclamation suspended the civil liberties, among others, we were in a great dilemma…as to what exactly to write and not to write in the paper, Kantipur, of which I am a reporter, and well, at times, an editorial writer too.
All reporters were looking towards Narayan Wagle, the Editor. I think that day, that moment was one of his decisive moments in his life, in his career as a journalist and as an Editor. Dito with Prateek Pradhan, Editor of the Kathmandu Post, sister publication of Kantipur. It was rumored that Editors of several newspapers were summoned to the palace and given instructions, if not intimidated, as to how they should go in the days to come. Some Editors were even threatned of their life if they dared to go against the government wish. As New York Times reportes in it’s Feb 7 issue that “the king’s press secretary told some editors last week that he would not be able to help if the military decided to “disappear” them for a few hours, according to one editor who spoke on condition of anonymity.”
I saw Kanak Mani Dixit, publisher of Himal Khabarpatrika Magazine and Rajendra Dahal, Editor of the same magazine visiting the offices of Kantipur Publications. Communication was totally disrupted and Editors badly needed to consult eachother at that time, I guessed. [In the same evening, Kanak gave a powerful comment to BBC’s Nepali Service. He was strongly against Royal move. I liked him and his comment and thought, from tomorrow, BBC Nepali Service will be taken off air from various FM stations aound the country. That is exactly what happened the following day and FMs are now barred from broadcasting anykind of news.]I was also confused. I hadn’t faced such situation before. I belong to the breed of journalists who started their carreer in a democratic society, who were raised in a democratic environment. As of now, after 10 days, I am learning to live and behave in a new atmosphere/situation.
It was not unusual, in any way, for thousands of readers of Kantipur, Nepal’s most influential and largest circulated daily, to expect a hard hitting and opinionated front-page editorial on the (well, in fact blasting the) Royal Takeover. But since the basic rights were suspended, the paper, its management and the editor couldn’t have risked the future of the newspaper and hundreds of jobs provided by the publication. Then came my utility.
Correctly sensing and judging the situation, Narayan Walge, editor, summoned me to give this order: “Dinesh, write an editorial on Charumati.” In Kantipur, reporters are encouraged to write articles and editorials on their respected field of reporting. On the very same day, an article written by me about a dance-drama appeared on the Arts and Style section of the daily. The dance-drama was based on Emperor Ashoka’s Nepal visit and his daughter Charumati’s love affair with a Nepali hunk. Satya Mohan Joshi, 85, the legendry writer and culture expert directed the ballet. So, the issue itself was perfectly suitable for an editorial.Here I go… Hey folks out there at New York Times or the Guardian, don’t laugh at me. We are habituated with that kind of journalism where, not so long ago, a single man would be a publisher, reporter, editor and a hawker. The situation is slowly changing after the arrival of big newspapers with large number of staffs. But we still have long way to go to have a separate department of editorial writers who are gray-haired and expert on what they editorialize.
I wrote the editorial on the ballet. When it was published, people were kind of surprised and shocked to read that peace. As I said already, they wanted an editorial about the Royal decision. So, many of the readers still read the write-up expecting that the editorial, in some way of other, might satire about the event. The topics themselves were not unsuitable for the editorial but the timing made them so.
The next day’s editorial dealt with how to internationalize out archery. Then followed a peace about Nepali cricket. All subjects, in my opinion, were suitable for an editorial but people expected different topics on that situation. Kathmandu Post ran an editorial about socks: what kinds of socks to wear, which color and brand etc. Nepali Times, a weekly, wrote about the sudden fall of trees in the city and called upon the concerned authorities to restore the greenery in the valley.
Now, international media including BBC World Service started reading between the lines. They saw a kind of revolt, hidden meaning in those editorials. The Post’s headline was “Socks in the Society”. Was that metaphoric? Well, for some, yes. For many, all those odd editorials were metaphoric. They were speaking the papers disapproval of what Kind did a day ago…
Political reporters in different media, including Kantipur, were joking that they will be jobless in a few days if the situation continues. Some columnists were of the opinion that they won’t be able to continue their column in future. Many columns, including ‘Peepalbot.com’ of Narayan Wagle in Kantipur are still off the pages. Even satirical column like that of ‘Under my Hat’ (Nepali Times) of Kunda Dixit seem to have sensored.
I have slightly different opinion on this regard. I think that this (restriction) will help the Nepali journalism on the long run. Do I seem like a reactionary? Sorry, if I did. I am a democrat by heart and support multiparty democracy system in the country. That will help expand journalism for sure. But the current restrictions over political reporting will help us to find different topics, social ones that are directly related to readers…to people. Why write or publish repeated interviews of ‘corrupt’ leaders as Kusum suggested in his letter? Lets write about sports, lets write about village life, about peoples plight.
Political freedom is the ultimate goal of Nepal and Nepalis. No one can block that from coming in to Nepal. Even King, in his TV address, has repeatedly promised to restore multi-party democracy in Nepal. So, let’s not worry about that guys. Now, in the mean time, lets try to write on other topics….