Govt Moves SC Against its Order on FM Stations

Kathmandu, August 21-The government today moved the Supreme Court against the court’s 11-day-old order that allowed FM radio stations to broadcast news.
Filing a petition in the SC, secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication, Lokman Singh Karki urged the apex court to scrap its stay order. He claimed that the government has discretionary power to monitor FM news. He also claimed that the government has authority to monitor FM radio stations.
The apex court, responding to a writ petition filed by the Rainbow FM Private Limited, the management of Nepal FM, had stayed the government order to the FM station seeking its clarification why it broadcasted news on August 10. The government had threatened the FM station to cancel its licence for broadcasting news violating the government directives and beyond the rights given by the licence.
After the SC stay order, most of the FM stations had started broadcasting news.