Election preparation intensified; RSS presents its self-regulation guide before Election Commission
Kathmandu, Jan 9: Officiating Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari said that the Commission was making a rapid preparation for the upcoming March 5 election to the House of Representatives.
Bhandari said it while receiving a copy of the 'Election Code of Conduct-2082 BS' issued by the Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) as part of a self-regulation in news production and dissemination on election on Friday.
During the event, Officiating Chief Election Commissioner Bhandari called for broader and mutual cooperation, collaboration and coordination among the State institutions and agencies to successfully conduct the election. He acknowledged the important role of the mass media in creating an enabling environment for election.
Bhandari expressed his confidence that the RSS would actively contribute to the national campaign of successfully holding the election by adhering to both the Commission's election code of conduct as well its own code. He expressed happiness over the issuance and the implementation of the self-regulatory code by the RSS, the only state-owned news agency of Nepal, ahead of the March 5 election.
Similarly, the senior most election official said the Commission expects a greater responsibility from the RSS which, he observed, had been consistently disseminating truthful, impartial, credible and authorized news.
Election Commissioner, Sagun Shumsher JBR, believed that the RSS would be focused in collecting and disseminating election-centric news contents that, he opined, would largely contribute to the other mass media in the country.
Mass media plays a vital role in ensuring compliance with the code of conduct, promotion of voter-education and dissemination of factual and timely news.
Secretary at the Commission, Krishna Bahadur Raut, asserted that if all other media houses would issue and implement such self-regulatory election code of conduct, it would hugely contribute to Commission's effort towards its goal of implementation of the election code of conduct.
RSS election code revised
On the occasion, RSS Executive Chairperson Dharmendra Jha informed that the 23-point election code of conduct formulated by the RSS for self-regulation would be effective from Friday itself. He reminded the RSS had previously issued similar self-regulatory election code of conduct which, he added, was revised and new issues such as 'AI' and 'Social Media' were incorporated in the recent one.
"The election code of conduct issued and implemented by the RSS in the last parliamentary election had a positive impact," Jha argued.
Necessary arrangements were in place for the prompt collection and dissemination of election-centric news contents at RSS.
Present on the occasion were Election Commissioner Dr Janaki Kumari Tuladhar, RSS General Manager Sandeep Rai, RSS News Division Chief Som Lamichhane, Chief Editor Uttam Silwal, Feature Chief Krishna Adhikari, Deputy Chief of News Division, Yakraj Pathak, Administration Chief Shital Mahato and Chief Reporter Narayan Prasad Neupane.