Nepal: Dissonance of a 'Dependent' Media

By Maila Baje

The world's largest democracy boasts one of the freest press on the planet. No news in that. Of course, the real picture is less enjoyable. The Indian media are largely free at home. How newspapers and television channels serve as government propaganda tools abroad - even instruments for subversion - is becoming clearer. Nepal has been on the receiving end for a long time.

One Indian TV channel has been accused of trying to fake a Maoist attack on an army camp during the municipal elections last month. Few Nepalis might have forgotten how another TV channel proudly identified a Nepali passenger as one of the hijackers of an Indian Airlines flight originating from Kathmandu in December 1999.

Unfazed by the criticism, the channel's follow-up story was on how lax security was at Tribhuvan International Airport. The reporter breezed past all levels of security, filming his feat with a hidden camera. The problem was with what the reporter didn't report. He flashed his press pass, brandished his ticket at all points before boarding the plane to Delhi. Of course, he could move around so freely.

Then there are subtle ways in which propaganda is foisted on the gullible as news. Take this Indian reporter based in Kathmandu. The scribe produces a prodigious amount of copy each day, primarily for a widely subscribed news and feature service.

To be fair, the stories do provide a refreshing contrast to the staid and supercilious copy other Kathmandu-based Indian scribes are known for. However, the reporter in question is also a full-time correspondent for Calcutta- and Hyderabad-based newspapers. When this scribe offers an angle to a story, the two daily newspapers carry them prominently. The larger Indian dailies carry the news-service version of the copy, which also runs in European- and US-based publications and websites.

In effect, one reporter can create a Lincoln Steffens-style news wave that distorts what actually may have happened in Nepal. Take the recent discrepancy in the casualty figures following the recent Maoist attack in Ilam. This reporter did a story on the basis of a Nepalese daily's reporting, which itself was based on clearly flawed sourcing. Accuracy, balance and consistency were still cardinal rules of reporting the last time Maila Baje checked - even amid the concentration of journalistic power in one reporter.

When Nepalese news organizations start throwing around words like "China Card" with abandon, you get a feeling that something far serious is afoot. Coined by the Indian media to display the New Delhi establishment's deep dislike for Kathmandu's effort to exercise its full sovereignty, the term's deep local penetration has serious implications.

For one thing, the sustained use of the term suggests the non-state "free" Nepalese media's acquiescence in India's prejudiced interpretation of Nepal's foreign policy.

Worse, it sets out to convey the fallacious impression that Nepal's "independent" media are merely conveying a growing public dislike for the government's exercise of its sovereign options.

Last November, Nepal took a bold step toward correcting a palpably growing imbalance in South Asia. Although geographically distant, China has come to play an increasing role in the region. That consists of much more than an improvement in political and economic ties with India and a consolidation of the traditional security partnership with Pakistan. China has steadily built robust multidimensional partnerships with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, which India condescendingly considers its backyard.

Our homegrown critics of Nepal's "China Card" fail to acknowledge that Kathmandu's initiative at the SAARC summit to have Beijing associated with the regional organization as an observer had the full backing of Islamabad, Dhaka and Colombo.

On the issue of Chinese arms supplies to the Nepalese army, why have the "independent" media conveniently ignored the fact that Kathmandu turned to Beijing only after New Delhi, along with London and Washington, stopped crucial supplies at a critical moment?

Nepalese publications populated with Nepali-speaking migrants from the northeastern Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya are throwing around such terms most consistently. Now this couldn't just be coincidental.

Maila Baje writes about Nepal at http://nepalinetbook.blogspot.com/