Minister for Information and Communications Sherdhan Rai has expressed commitment that government would make efforts to address anything that was missed in relation to the media sector in the new budget. With the delegation from Press Chautari Nepal on Tuesday, Minister Rai said although the budget addressed some issues on media, the government would try to address those left out in the budget. The Chautari delegation submitted a paper drawing the Minister’s attention on various 12 issues relating to the media. According to Minister Rai, the minimum wage fixed for journalists would come into effect from Saun 1st and the homework for establishment of media study and training academy has reached final stage.
Chautari Chairman Ganesh Basnet said the 50 percent discount to journalists for their treatment was a very good decision of the government. The issues raised by the Chautari were- formation of advertisement authority to implement proportional advertisement, guarantee of public welfare advertisement to electronic media, fair process to be adopted while establishing the national media research and trading institute, assistance for the quake-damaged media houses for restoration and others.