Nepal Cell Phone: No Signal For Some Journalists
By Gunaraj Luintel
When my plane landed in Tribhban Bimansthal two days ago, I tried to make a call from my cell phone. I heard the same message in the same irritating tone- ‘This type of call is restricted.’
I was coming back to Kathmandu from visiting Dang, a conflict-hit district in mid-West Nepal. Two weeks ago, on May 2, state-owned cell phone monopoly Nepal Telecom resumed the service for some selected lines in Kathmandu.
I was in the CPN-UML office that day to listen Madhav Kumar Nepal, Secretry General of the party. He was there after being released from three month long detention in his own house. When the news conference was over, somebody whispered that the mobile service had resumed. Within hours, people in Kathmandu, journalists and leaders included, started making calls to their kith and kin from their handheld machine. Obviously, the resumption of the service brought smile on the faces of people. Photojournalists didn’t miss to capture those happy moments in their machines.
On that day to, I had opened my mobile, charged the batteries and dialed the number. What I hear what this message: ‘This type of call is restricted.”
I instantly smelled that I am not in the government set priority list of people to be connected. I asked my colleagues about the condition of their mobile phones. Some of them were listening the same message. In fact, most of the journalists were denied the service. Ditto with political leaders and rights activists. By now lines have been opened up gradually but I am among those very few who are still being denied the service. I am not really complaining.
I think it is a kind of importance the government has given to us. WE, who are denied the cell phone service. I think those who got their lines resumed probably felt ashamed. They were not in the elite group to which government gives so much importance.
In our publications and in Kantipur TV, four scribes are still denied the service. (Sohan Shrestha, Deputy News Chief of Kantipur TV and Bimal Gautam, reporter, KTV. Kantipur daily reporter Ujir Magar and myself.) I was eager to find out the reason behind the denial of service to me. Finally, my colleagues at Kantipur found out. It was because of Security. Our crime was to write. Those of us who have been singled out are journalists writing on conflict related issues in the papers. I tried to remember what I have done? What I have written?
Yes, I tried to write about the plight of the people who are suffering from the endless saga of violence. That certainly made the government unhappy. The government thought that we were the real people who might use our cell phone against its policies. Government couldn’t go against the whole press. It chose to single out journalists. Since we write about people, our phone numbers are publicly available and anyone could have accessed them: from politician to the general public, film actress to schoolteacher. National and international news sources could contact us.
The ‘old breeds’ of the rulers want to tackle the terrorism problem by denying cell phone services to journalists like us. The mindset of our rulers is that of 50s or 60s. So the measures it opts would be suitable to that policy. State declared terrorist use not only the mobile phones but also the electricity and the public transportation. I wonder why the government is still supplying electricity to people and why public vehicles are running on the roads. I am quite sure this regressive regime one-day will ban the every products of modern technology.
Well, again I am feeling proud. The government recognized our journalistic contribution over the years. I will not be requesting authorities to connect my cell phone line. I am sure, one day, the authorities too will feel irritated by this message: ‘This type of call is restricted.’
Gunaraj Luitel is the News Editor at Kantipur Daily Newspaper.
3 Comments »
HMG is now only surviving by such methods and with RNA and police. In Ukraine and other former Sowjetrepublics similair developments are now resulting in bloody clashes.
Comment by anonymous — 5/15/2005 @ 12:19 pm
Maybe because these people’s mobiles are switched off, there is no bomb blast in Kathmandu?
Comment by Ramesh Singh — 5/15/2005 @ 2:08 pm
What a nice comment by Ramesh Singh. He is right. It doesn’t matter if some mobiles are still switche off. Because there is no blast in Kathmandu and the city has been very peaceful. We need peace hook or by crook. Some mobile phone owners must wait.
Comment by Samjhana — 5/15/2005 @ 10:03 pm
United We Blog 