KU-UNESCO Meeting at SoA

November 21, 2013

As one of the key activities of the UNESCO/UNPFN project, 'Increasing the Safety of Journalists' an Inception Context Analysis was conducted by the Department of Languages and Mass Communication. The meeting was aimed at sharing the project findings and collecting feedback from the stakeholders for the preparation of the final report.

Mr. Axel Plathe, UNESCO representative to Nepal, started the meeting with a brief overview of the journalist security situation in Nepal, and stressed UNESCO’s interest in developing an effective national mechanism for journalist safety.

Dr. Nirmala Mani Adhikary, coordinator of the KU media studies program and the team leader of the inception context analysis, presented the findings and progress of the analysis, and addressed various questions raised by the stakeholders and participants.

Prof. Dr. Jangab Chauhan, Associate Dean of School of Arts, remarked on the issue of journalist safety from the historical perspective. He said, “The threat against journalists is not only a recent phenomenon, but was prevalent during various political events in the past including the period of struggle against the Rana and Panchayat regimes.

Mr. Laxman Datt Pant, coordinator of the Journalist safety project and head of the communication unit of UNESCO, described the Terms of Reference for inception context analysis.

Among the participants of the meeting were the representatives from International Media Support (IMS/NIMP), Nepal Police Human Right Cell, Federation of Nepalese journalist and UNESCO.

Mr. Shekhar KC, Research Assistant in the project, moderated the 2 hour long event.