US embassy cable - 05KATHMANDU2654

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 002654 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SA/INS, SA/PPD 
NSC FOR RICHELSOPH 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, NP 
SUBJECT: SUPREME COURT RULING ALLOWS RADIO STATIONS TO 
BROADCAST NEWS 
 
REF: A. KATHMANDU 2615 
 
     B. KATHMANDU 1690 
     C. KATHMANDU 2318 
 
Classified By: Charge Elisabeth Millard. Reasons 1.4 (b/d). 
 
Supreme Court Stays Government Actions Against FM Radio News 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
1. (SBU) In two separate cases, the Supreme Court stayed 
government efforts to curb radio broadcasts of news.  On 
November 30, the Supreme Court ordered the government not to 
ban any FM radio station from broadcasting news until it 
issued a final decision on the King's February 1 declaration 
banning stations from broadcasting news.  The November 30 
stay order followed an August 11 Supreme Court stay order 
which resulted in a number of FM stations resuming news 
broadcasts (ref A).  Til Prasad Shrestha, Joint Registrar at 
the Supreme Court, confirmed that the Court issued the stay 
order, adding that this was not the final verdict as the case 
was ongoing, with no date set for the next hearing. 
 
Radio Sagarmartha Resumes Broadcasting 
-------------------------------------- 
 
2. (U) On November 29, the Supreme Court ordered a stay on 
the government's November 27 shut-down of Radio Sagarmartha 
(ref B).  Subsequently, the Ministry of Information and 
Communication sent a fax to the station asking it to resume 
broadcasting, but not to air BBC Nepali and other programs 
banned by the National Broadcast Act.  The Act bans broadcast 
of programs that "generate apprehension or terror in the mind 
of the public," or that "encourage violence".  Although the 
government did not return any seized equipment to the 
station, Sagarmartha was able to resume transmission upon 
receipt of the fax.  The Supreme Court is set to hear 
petitions on the seizure of equipment and rebroadcast of BBC 
Nepali filed by Radio Sagarmartha on December 7 (ref B).  In 
a third radio freedom case before the Supreme Court, 
involving the seizure of equipment from Kantipur FM, the 
Government had not returned any equipment to Kantipur FM and 
the Supreme Court had not set a date for the next hearing 
(ref C). 
 
BBC Nepali Service Hard to Find 
------------------------------- 
 
3. (U) Following the government's actions against Radio 
Sagarmartha on November 27, only three of the six authorized 
stations outside the Kathmandu Valley were broadcasting BBC 
Nepali Service.  BBC Nepali was available in the Kathmandu 
Valley only on short-wave as Radio Sagarmartha has had the 
exclusive contract to rebroadcast, with the permission of the 
government, BBC Nepali Service within the Kathmandu Valley 
for the past eight years.  The government station, Radio 
Nepal, continued to broadcast BBC World Service in English. 
The Government reportedly continued to block access to the 
BBC Nepali website. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
4. (C) The Supreme Court's November 29 and 30 stay actions in 
favor of media freedom follow criticism by activists who 
believed the Court's inaction following the Kantipur seizure 
(ref C) gave the government the green light to further 
restrict the media.  The new stays put pressure on the 
government to uphold media freedoms. 
 
5. (SBU) Both the November 30 front page of the Himalayan 
Times, and the website nepalnews.com on November 29 carried 
articles quoting a senior State Department official on the 
USG's criticism of the Sagarmartha raid, using guidance from 
ref A . 
MILLARD