Kathmandu: The Press Council Nepal (PCN) is all set to make media monitoring and enforcement of the code of conduct for media and journalists more effective. Towards this, the Council charted out a strategic action-plan and presented it before Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Jagadish Kharel, at the latter’s office in Singha Durbar Sunday.
According to National News Agency Nepal, Minister Kharel pledged the Council necessary cooperation in facilitating media monitoring. Kharel also urged the statutory body, mandated to promote standards of a free press, to make media monitoring, fact-checking, and special election-related monitoring more effective.
The interim government has been mandated to hold an election coming March 5. In view of the election, the Council has devised a special action-plan to conduct a special monitoring of the media throughout the ongoing Nepali month, Kartik.
As per the special action-plan, the Council will begin fact-checking from the Nepali month of Mangsir, and a special oversight will be carried out before and during the election. For this to happen, it has proposed a necessary budget and program framework.
Shantaram Bidari, a member of the Council, called on Minister Kharel on Sunday and shared that the Council had come up with the special action-plan to enhance the monitoring of the media and journalists and strengthen fact-checking.
Minister Kharel, in his recent visit to the Council, had instructed the Council to launch a special initiative for making the Council’s work more dynamic.