Kathmandu, May 21: The Minimum Wages Fixation Committee (MWFC) has recommended minimum Rs 34,125 as the monthly wage for working journalists. A team including the MWFC chairperson Sangita Khadka today met with Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma and submitted a report putting forth the demand. At present, the minimum monthly wage for journalists is Rs 24,600.
In response, Minister Sharma said working journalists should draw salaries that sustain them for living despite weak economic situation of the country at present, and a standard would be made during the allocation of public welfare advertisements if media houses refuse giving the minimum wages.
‘The government is clear about implementing the minimum wages recommended by the Committee and on the issue that working journalists should get remunerations enough for their livelihood,’ she said. On the occasion, President of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) Bipul Pokharel drew the attention of the government to fully implement the minimum wages recommended by the Committee while stressing the need for the government to take initiatives to create an environment conducive for media houses to implement it.
Committee president Khadka said various eight-point demands including a 40 percent increment in the pay scale have been recommended to the government for implementation. The recommendation states that process needs to be forwarded for amending the Working Journalists Act, 2059 BS in order to make it timely as it has been 27 years since the Act has been into implementation and 14 years since it was first amended.
Similarly, the Committee has called for providing the budget and human resources required for carrying out effective monitoring whether the working journalists in the media outlets have been getting facilities stipulated in the Act and providing the Committee with additional powers to find out the fact whether or not the media houses concerned have been implementing the stipulated services and facilities and to make them liable for reward and punishment.
Likewise, the Committee called for forming a permanent monitoring and judicial mechanism with the representation of the stakeholders for regularly carrying out monitoring at the media house for ensuring the effective implementation of the Act. It has recommended including provisions for stopping all services and facilities provided by government to the media houses not providing the services and facilities stipulated by the Working Journalists Act, 2051 BS (First Amendment, 2064 BS).
The Committee has recommended to the government to make provisions denying publishing or broadcasting any government notices by media outlets not implementing the Act, to have the proportional distribution of the publicity materials or advertisement through one-door system for supporting the operation of media houses, and to give the local-level advertisements proportionally to the local media only.
Similarly, among the other recommendations include the compulsorily implementing the social security fund in all the media outlets and requiring them to submit the payroll including the facilities like festivals, medical treatment stipulated by the Act and Regulations.
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