Court issues interim order in favour of Nepal FM

Kathmandu Aug 10-The Supreme Court on Wednesday has issued an interim order to the government not to expedite process to take action against Rainbow FM, a private sector FM station—that has been airing Nepal FM.
After preliminary hearings, a single bench comprising Justice Anup Raj Sharma ordered the government not to take action against the Rainbow FM until the final verdict is delivered.
The apex court was responding to a writ petition filed by Rainbow FM Pvt. Ltd. against a threat by the government to cancel its license.
In a letter sent to the FM last week, the Ministry of Information and Communications had sought clarification from the FM for airing news items over the radio by what it said 'violating the government's directives.' The Ministry warned that the license of the FM could be revoked for defying the government's orders.
The government had issued directives in February this year asking all the FM radio stations in the country to broadcast strictly "entertainment related programmes only."
This led the closure of news and current affairs based programmes in nearly four dozen private and community radio stations across the country rendering hundreds of radio journalists jobless.