The Nepali mass media have played a great role in countering the partyless and autocratic regimes. During the direct monarchial regime in 2006, they catalyzed people’s minds towards the mass movement. No one can forget this historically significant role in the country’s democratic movement.
Even during the partyless Panchayat regime, underground publications engaged in mission journalism fearlessly resisted various suppressive moves of the concerned regime.
As far as the universally accepted democratic principles are concerned, the mass media have always defended the norms and values of democracy and human rights. In the post-1990 period, they have enjoyed a greater degree of freedom to advocate for market economy and human rights. While the number of print and electronic media has been going up in the latest years, most of the working class people have felt that the mass media have emphasized on the elitist and business interests. In this context, grassroots agenda face an overshadow. Such a feeling of the working class people cannot be ignored when we worship press freedom for a genuine democracy.
The current nonpartisan observation of the Nepali mass media implies that they have with undiminished commitment advocated for the broader ideals of democracy while they have maintained their untransformed mindset as far as selection, processing and presentation of their contents are concerned.
The Nepali mass media must now dare to divorce with the previous ruling elites, who marginalized and excluded the grassroots communities. Since the April uprising of 2006 has sent shockwaves to the world by politically storming out those medieval forces, it is not necessary for the Nepali mass media to defend them anymore.
As the Constituent Assembly elected on 10 April 2008 adopts multi-ideological and multi-ethnic principles, the media cannot satisfy people with a merely traditional role.
Every sector requires transformation in Nepal. So do the Nepali mass media. Only the psychologically transformed media can accelerate the process of political, socio-economic and religious-cultural transformation. Nepal can really enjoy all-round transformation if the mass media can combine their growing technological transformation with people’s transformative aspirations.
People are the transformative university capable of educating the mass media information players. The information players, to develop a transformative attitude, must have genuine interest learning from the lives of the grassroots people. However, media forces traditionally trained in aligning with the prevalent forces cannot jump up to a new level at one stroke. Pro-grassroots agenda forces need to exercise continuously to remold the mass media m mindset for transformative purposes.
It is true that the grassroots agenda have not found a major space in the mass media. What is equally true is that the Nepali mass media generally have not been defined or categorized the grassroots agenda. Therefore, some elaboration of the grassroots agenda is necessary.
Grassroots agenda mainly refer to the majority’s sufferings. Prosperous and powerful people benefit from mass sufferings. The mass media will be able to shift to a transformative role if they can reach the depth of such mass sufferings.
More than 90 percent of the Nepalis live in more than 3,900 villages. Although the April uprising of 2006 has politically ousted the medieval rulers, their corrupt mechanisms have continued to spread metatastic infections, affecting even the newer leaderships in the country.
Corruption has become an all-pervasive cancer in Nepal. The most corrupt ones have become the most respected forces while honest, principled and hardworking citizens have lived a torturous life. Even those jailed because of corruption scandals have remained powerful political leaders. Even office assistants working in the customs and revenue offices have become billionaires through huge corruption. State mechanisms assigned with the responsibility of investigation and punishment remain almost defunct because of the same metatastic effect.
In essence, systemlessness has been institutionalized in Nepal. In fact, corruption-minded forces have been reinforcing corruption culture as a national value under the umbrella of systemlessness. Those trying to lead the country through a transformative path really face the toughest challenge.
Even the international donors and their representative institutions in Nepal appear unclear about their Nepal policy. They have already squandered billions in the name of Nepal’s development. They have bothered little about the output for the suffering masses in Nepal. Knowingly or unknowingly, they have nurtured corrupt leaderships that have supported their impositions. We do not know if the international donors helping Nepal have calculated otherwise.
But the international community is not to blame in this context because they basically depend on the input provided by Nepal’s mainstream intellectual community.
The country’s intellectual community and the mass media have interdependent relationships. They feed each other with input. It is mainly up to them to go deeper into the grassroots agenda of the country.
Prejudiced mentality among media professionals and their owners will harm the country and further endanger the current peace process. Media critics and analysts should guide media professionals towards changes and grassroots agenda.