Probe committee formed to investigate against ‘The Himalayan Times’

KATHMANDU: The Nepal Press Council has initiated proceedings against The Himalayan Times, an English daily newspaper published in Nepal with Indian investment and its online edition, for publishing one-sided content about popular climber Nirmal Purja and his company.

Issuing a statement on Friday, the Council formed a three-member task force to investigate the issue.

The task force was formed under the headship of Thakur Prasad Belbase, a member of the Council, to carry out the investigation and submit the report.

It has been mentioned in the statement that the Council will study and investigate some serious matters in order to proceed with the process of monitoring and taking action.

The Council formed such a task force only in exceptional cases and conducted special investigations.

The meeting held on Friday of the Code of Conduct Monitoring Sub-Committee presided over by chairman of the Council Balkrishna Basnet decided to form the task force.

The complaint alleged that ‘The Himalayan Times’ had misused the media platform to tarnish the reputation of climber Purja and Elite Exped ​​in the international arena.

It has been found that ‘The Himalayan Times’ has failed to adhere to the code of conduct despite warning from the Council seven times.

On August 27, the Council had written to ‘The Himalayan Times’ saying that it had found publishing one-sided news content during the monitoring and asked to furnish the clarification.

The Council was compelled to form the task force after the media house did not stop writing against Purja.

But with an objective to defame the Nepali climbing sector and climbers, the Indian invested newspaper started supporting an Australian fraud, who does not even have paid the royalty, by trying to slander the expedition company, Govinda Katuwal of Elite Exped said.

According to the complaint, the newspaper defamed the Elite Exped by supporting the Australian woman climber Rochelle Gilmore who came to Nepal to climb Everest and Lhotse and ran away without paying the money to the company.

Chairman Basnet, Council members Thakur Belbase, Sharad Adhikari, Lal Babu Sheikh and Anjita Khanal were present in the meeting.