SC Stays Ban on BBC in Sagarmatha FM

Kathmandu Dec 7-The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a stay order asking the government not to implement its order banning retransmission of BBC Nepali Service on Radio Sagarmatha FM.

Acting on a writ petition filed on Friday, a joint bench of Justices Khil Raj Regmi and Damodar Prasad Sharma ruled that there were no sufficient legal grounds to ban the retransmission of the BBC programs and asked the government not to implement the order.

A single bench of Justice Kedar Prasad Giri had on Sunday asked the government to furnish a clarification to the court until today.

Advocates Subash Nemwang, Satish Krishna Kharel, Agni Kharel and Raju Chapagain presented arguments on behalf of the petitioners.

Bhupendra Basnet, general secretary of the Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ), which runs Radio Sagarmatha, had filed a writ petition against the government’s notice to the FM station to stop up-linking the BBC Service.

The Ministry of Information and Communication had given the order even as the apex court issued a stay order over the ban on newscasts on FM radios last week.