Saturday, June 09, 2007

Form panel for scribes’ salary: SC

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the government to form a remuneration and compensation committee as provisioned in the Working Journalists Act, to determine and review salary and compensation for Nepalese journalists from time to time.
The SC issued the order as the committee has not been formed to date. The Act itself has been in place since 1996 but remains unimplemented.
In the case of the salary committee, journalists remain underpaid, uncompensated and deprived of timely increases in salary.
According to the Act, whose revision has been sought by journalists ever since its promulgation, the committee is responsible for recommending the salary of journalists to the government and reviewing it from time to time. Besides, the committee is also responsible for determining compensation for journalists in case they are injured or killed in the course of their work.
Responding to a writ petition, Justices Bal Ram KC and Kalyan Shrestha also ordered the government to form a committee to hear the complaints of working journalists against their management, as provisioned in the Working Journalists Regulations.
Likewise, the court has also ordered the government to appoint a press registrar as provisioned in the Print and Publication Act 1992. This official is responsible for maintaining records on newspapers in the country.

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