Forcing journalists to open news sources is a loss to democracy: Dahal Dahal <\/strong><\/p>\n Manisha Basnet, Nepal News Bank <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Kathmandu Senior journalist Taranath Dahal has said that the state’s activities of pressuring journalists to disclose the confidentiality of news sources will not only harm press freedom but also the entire democratic system. <\/p>\n In an interview with Nepal News Bank, he said that democracy should not be limited only to the process of election, election of people’s representatives and change of government. He said that democracy is not only a political system but also a matter of culture, culture and behavior. According to him, the rule of law, justice, equality, transparency and accountability should be ensured for the real exercise of democracy. Stating that the citizens cannot experience democracy just by changing the government through elections, he said that democratic values should be established in all the organs and processes of the state. Dahal said the recent arrests on journalists, pressure on them to disclose news sources and fear created in the name of investigation would weaken the democratic system.<\/p>\n According to him, the main responsibility of journalism is to collect information on the issues of public interest and to disseminate it to the public after fact-checking. <\/p>\n ‘Democracy is not just a political system. In our country, political change is understood as democracy. Democracy is a matter of culture, it is about culture,” he said. <\/p>\n Dahal said that protecting the confidentiality of news sources is the basic professional responsibility of journalism. He said that the role of the source is important in bringing out information about corruption, irregularities and illegal activities taking place in the government and public bodies. <\/p>\n He argues that journalists should not be forced to disclose sources as disclosing the identity of the person providing information of public interest may be insecure to them. <\/p>\n “The press creates various sources and informs the general readers, listeners and viewers by digging up information that is of public interest but not coming out. That is the main religion of the press,” he said. <\/p>\n He said that if the sources are not protected, journalists will not be able to work fearlessly and the process of bringing out information of public interest will be affected. He said that this will make the state agencies accountable and also weaken the role of journalism in exposing corruption and illegal activities. <\/p>\n It is not that there is no legal provision regarding resource protection in Nepal. He said that there are provisions for resource protection in the Press Council Nepal’s Journalist Code of Conduct and the Right to Information Act. <\/p>\n According to him, Section 27 of the Right to Information Act, 2064 provides for the protection of persons providing information of public interest. However, he said that despite the provisions in the law, the state agencies have not been able to act according to its spirit. He said that in particular, the use of Section 47 of the Electronic Transactions Act to drag journalists into criminal investigations and pressure them to open news sources has posed a challenge to press freedom. <\/p>\n He stressed on the need to provide legal protection to the employees and informants who expose the wrongdoing within the public bodies. He said that there are legal provisions related to the protection of whistleblowers in various countries. <\/p>\n Dahal said that the responsibility of journalism and the state’s investigation system is different when it comes to providing information about the sources obtained by journalists to the police or other investigative agencies. He said that the purpose of getting information from the source of the journalist is not to collect evidence for the investigating agency but to inform the general public. He said that the information received by the journalist should be verified and made public as news. <\/p>\n “It is your duty to protect any source you have found. You have not got the information to spy on it, but to inform the general public,” he said. He said that since the state has the police, intelligence agencies and other investigative agencies, it is the responsibility of these agencies to investigate and protect sensitive information. <\/p>\n He also questioned the fact that the statements and information collected by the police during the investigation were made public in the media. He said that the statement given by the person to the police during the investigation could not have been investigated by the journalist but by the concerned investigating agency. <\/p>\n He said that although the nature of information production and distribution has changed with the expansion of social networks, the distinction between journalism and general information dissemination should be maintained. He said that in the past, the media was the main medium for collecting, testing and disseminating information, but now due to mobile, internet and social media, anyone can make information public. This has added to the challenge of distinguishing between true and false information.<\/p>\n According to him, there should be a clear distinction between the credibility of the content on social media and the news published by the media. The news should be fact-based, balanced and inclusive of the views of all parties. <\/p>\n He said that the competition to increase views and income in the media has increased the tendency to publish unconfirmed information, keep sensational headlines and publish news without fact-checking. He said that such a practice will weaken public trust in journalism. “There should be a difference between being a journalist and being a mass information communicator. Readers should have faith that what the media has brought has come after verifying the truth, is balanced and the views of all sides are included,” he said. He said that in-depth study, investigative reporting, fact-checking and balanced news dissemination were necessary to maintain the credibility of journalism. Dahal said that while raising the issues of press freedom and journalists’ safety, the professional responsibility of journalists should be given equal importance.<\/p>\n “Journalists should use their freedom to expose the incidents of injustice, atrocities, corruption and rights abuse,” he said. <\/p>\n He said that if journalism becomes a means of propagating wrong activities or propaganda, then its social relevance will be questioned. But he is of the clear view that the state cannot interfere with press freedom on the basis of weakness in journalism. <\/p>\n He said that Nepal has a legal body and process to regulate any media that publishes false or misleading news. He said that there is a provision to file a complaint with the Press Council, seek clarification from the concerned journalist or media and if necessary, give instructions for refutation or correction. He said that it was not appropriate to call journalists to the police station, seize mobile phones and laptops and exert pressure in the name of statements to find out the source of the news. <\/p>\n “You cannot justify the process of bringing this information to the police station and explaining where you got this information from, why you wrote this news, and then taking your mobile phone and laptop to know the initial information and source of the information,” he said. <\/p>\n He said that it would be against democratic values to put pressure on journalists just because the news was published that would make the state officials uncomfortable. He said that the pressure on journalists should not be seen only in terms of the credibility of the media and it should be understood as a question of state accountability and press freedom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Forcing journalists to open news sources is a loss to democracy: Dahal Dahal Manisha Basnet, Nepal News Bank Kathmandu Senior journalist Taranath Dahal has said that the state’s activities of pressuring journalists to disclose the confidentiality of news sources will not only harm press freedom but also the entire democratic system. In an interview withContinue reading “Compelling journalists to open news sources is a loss to democracy: Dahal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":126161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-samachar-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/photo_38ea2171.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126191,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126190\/revisions\/126191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/126161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}