(Prepared by myself as part of assignment for Tribhuvan University)
Online News Portal in Nepal
Introduction
The development of new technology on information and communication has brought a revolutionary change in the lives of human being and the field of mass communication and journalism is no exception to this.
Online journalism is the youngest of all discipline of journalism. Online journalism can simply be defined as the reporting of news via Internet. (Internet: A global network connecting millions of computers.)
As a part of the globe village Nepal cannot remain isolated to the development of means of communication. Despite the pace and techniques, the information and communication technology, e-commerce and online journalism are growing in Nepal. Along with the sector of journalism, the arenas of business, academia, agriculture, environment and many more are also using the online media in today's Nepal. Under such background, here's an attempt to present the definition, situation and development of online journalism in context of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
Unlike other forms of journalism, online journalism is any non-fiction or documentary narrative that reports or analyzes facts and events firmly rooted in time which are selected and arranged by reporters, writers, and editors to tell a story from a particular point of view through internet or WWW (World Wide Web).
Brief history of InternetThe age of internet is hardly four decade. Internet was developed by a company called ARPA in 1969 which was associated with the US government for Military uses. The original name for the internet as we know now it was ARPANET and it was used by the US Military to communicate resources. Initially it started networks in four computers.
In 1990, British Tim Berners-Lee brought a drastic change in internet when he succeeded to develop HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). His invention changed the scenario through WWW (World Wide Web) which offered greater capacity, flexibility, immediacy, permanence and interactivity. (HTML supports links to other documents, as well as graphics, audio, and video files).
Brief history of online journalism
Early precursors of the online journalism are believed to be teletext and videotext, introduced and used during 70s and 80s but never took off. In 1978, Bulletin Board System (BBS), information and emails sharing method by direct connection between computers, began. In 1982, StarText, the first newspaper intended to deliver only to computers via videotext was established.
Chicago Tribune of USA began its online venture, the Chicago Online, in 1992. This is the considered the first online media. The first proper news site was put on the internet as early as in 1993 when the The News & Observer in North Carolina was put on the internet through bulletin board system (BBS). After the first internet browser, Mosaic was launched in 1994, it went online as Nando Times. The pioneering site, the Nando Times pages were discontinued May 27, 2003. On January 19, 1995, the first newspaper to regularly publish on the Web, the Palo Alto Weekly in California, begins twice-weekly postings of its full content.
Internet in Nepal
Mercantile Office Systems began the commercial email system in June 1994 and established a separate entity Mercantile Communications for similar services. Before that Nepal Academy for Science and Technology (NAST) and Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists had used email services as trials. Early services were used by dialing ISD numbers in India for the connection.
On July 15, 1995 Mercantile started providing full online access operating via a lease line through Nepal Telecom with it’s backbone in Singapore. By the end of 1995, Mercantile had approximately 150 subscribers – most of them being the International Non-Governmental Organizations in Kathmandu.
Next to the Mercantile, 'Worldlink' started providing internet services in Kathmandu valley. The business competition between these two companies helped fostering and increasing the access of Nepalese people and organizations to internet. Today's giant ISP 'Nepal Telecom (Nepal Telecommunications Corporation)' started to provide internet on 2058 BS, causing thousands of Nepalese to subscribe and connect internet in their homes, rooms and offices easily.
Today Nepal Telecom has become the largest ISP followed by several companies such as Mercantile Communication, Worldlink, United Telecom Limited, Spice Nepal, Broadlink, Everest, Speedcast, Websurfer etc. The rural districts of Manang, Mustang and Jumla are using VSAT internet. Wireless WI-Fi service has been started in Kathmandu valley by Broadlink. Mobile WAP and GPRS service provided by Nepal Telecom and Ncell in their GSM system has brought the internet to the hands and palms of hundreds of thousands Nepalese people.
Online News Portal in Nepal
As the publication of first Nepali newspaper began from abroad (India), the first online news portal also began from abroad. Nepalese in US began the publication of first online media on Oct 23, 1993 – The Nepal Digest. This continued for 449 issues and closed before it resumed publication again in 2003. On September 7, 1995 The Kathmandu Post went online on the University of Illinois website. It was joint effort of Mercantile Communications, the publication and Rajendra Shrestha, an engineering student who uploaded the news on his personal page provided by the university.
Himal Media started archiving it’s publication, Himal South Asia, in it’s own website himalsouthasia.com in 1997.
Mercantile established South-Asia.com in 1998 when it archived seven daily and weekly newspapers. The site however only gave the digital version of the printed publications. In 1999, it moved to NepalNews.com paving ways for more newspapers to put up their content on the cyberspace and the company also began serving it’s own news collected by the reporters it employed for the news portal.
Kantipur Publications established KantipurOnline.com on April 13, 2000. At initial phase, KantipurOnline.com employed reporters for news reporting. The site not only uploaded the digital version of its publications but also has their original contents with a few reporters working for it.
On December 15, 2002 Kamana Group of Publications began newsofnepal.com. Lately all broadsheet dailies along with weeklies and smaller media are available online.
Talking about weblog or blog, the first blogsite of Nepal, United We Blog, was established on October 1, 2004. The number of blog sites is also increasing rapidly because one can start it free of cost and without much of technical knowledge.
Similarly, the oldest daily of Nepal, Gorkhapatra also began its online publication through www.gorkhapatra.org.np.
Similarly, nagariknews.com and republica.com of Nepal Rebublic media began online news portal from December 2009.
Current state of Nepali online news portal
From Nepal
Now there are more than 600 Nepali news portal in operation both in Nepali and English, but about half of them are believed to be operated from abroad. However, only about 50 of them are said to be updated regularly.
According to a recent report published by alexa.com, ekantipur.com, nagariknews.com and thehimalayantimes.com are the top three most view Nepali news portal respectively and all of them are published from Nepal.
In their bid of publishing breaking news, online news portal are often found publishing\uploading wrong information without verifying the facts promoting a worldwide debate of online journalism on accuracy Vs speed.
But, having the advantage of amending it easily and promptly, most of them are found to be correcting it in such a way as if they had never made a mistake. Most of them have never wish to hint that they had made a mistake.
A dominating numbers of the portal are found not to be uploaded on regular basis and uploading such portals depends upon the mood of person who runs it. Many of them do not have their own news source and depends upon other news portal as their news sources.
In the current context, online portal run by renowned media house of Nepal are the only up-to-date updated portals of Nepal.
From Abroad
Among the news portal published from outside Nepal, nepaljapan.com is the most frequently viewed. It is operated by a small group of Nepali people residing in Japan. Similarly, nepalbriten.com, samundrapari.com, nepalportugal.com, nepalmalaya.com are other frequently viewed websites operated from abroad. Most of the them are operated from non residential Nepali living in respective countries.
However, almost all news portals operated from abroad do not have their own news source of news. Most of them depend upon the news portals operated from Nepal, especially those run by big media houses. "Copy and Paste" have been their regular job in uploading new news.
Contributor: Royal move
Following the Royal move of February 1, 2005, the numbers of news portals and bloggers in Nepali language increased dramatically. Not only the royal move was the responsible factor behind increment of such blogs and portals in Nepali language. But the development of Unicode which made typing in Nepali language easy was the main factor in bringing change.
In the recent time, online journalist has been got organized under Nepali Association of Online Journalist which consists of 40 journalist. Though it has been recognized by the Federation of Nepali Journalist, the umbrella organization of Nepali Journalist it has been deprived of facilities provided to other media such as radio, TV and Newspapers.
Unlike other media, online news portal so far are not give public service advertisement and not classified into different grades as that of newspaper.
Online Blogging
The changed version of online journalism, where the unedited news, views, reviews and posts can be read or write is blog. The personal 'open diaries' publication in US Universities on 1996 AD can be assumed as the beginning of web blogging and today it has become a lifestyle. The western world has approved it as grass root journalism and the bloggers are considered to be the journalists. In case of Nepal it's simply limited to citizen journalism because of the limited access and availability of internet or computer knowledge nationwide.
The technology for blogging is easy and it's accessible to everyone. Registering a domain is not necessary for blogging, though some blogs are hosted on registered domains and operated similar to a website. The Google's blog hosting site www.blogger.com is especially famous among bloggers worldwide. Besides, www.wordpress.com, www.typepad.com and even the MSN, facebook, flicker and myspace pages are used for posting blogs.
Blogging is supposed to have started in Nepal with the publication of www.blog.com.np in which nearly half a dozen journalists are continuously posting their pages under the slogan of 'United we blog for a democratic Nepal'. Except it, there are hundreds of blogging pages hosted by journalists, authors, musicians, politicians and individuals. Some famous and highly trafficked Nepalese blog pages are www.mysansar.com, www.demrepubnepal.blogspot.com, www.dev.net.np etc. The site www.blogger.com.np publishes an alphabetical list of Nepalese blog sites. However, publishing the literary creations and news based articles on the blogs are now general but the accuracy and credibility of blogs are often questioned.
The changed version of online journalism, where the unedited news, views, reviews and posts can be read or write is blog. The personal 'open diaries' publication in US Universities on 1996 AD can be assumed as the beginning of web blogging and today it has become a lifestyle. The western world has approved it as grass root journalism and the bloggers are considered to be the journalists. In case of Nepal it's simply limited to citizen journalism because of the limited access and availability of internet or computer knowledge nationwide.
The technology for blogging is easy and it's accessible to everyone. Registering a domain is not necessary for blogging, though some blogs are hosted on registered domains and operated similar to a website. The Google's blog hosting site www.blogger.com is especially famous among bloggers worldwide. Besides, www.wordpress.com, www.typepad.com and even the MSN, facebook, flicker and myspace pages are used for posting blogs.
Blogging is supposed to have started in Nepal with the publication of www.blog.com.np in which nearly half a dozen journalists are continuously posting their pages under the slogan of 'United we blog for a democratic Nepal'. Except it, there are hundreds of blogging pages hosted by journalists, authors, musicians, politicians and individuals. Some famous and highly trafficked Nepalese blog pages are www.mysansar.com, www.demrepubnepal.blogspot.com, www.dev.net.np etc. The site www.blogger.com.np publishes an alphabetical list of Nepalese blog sites. However, publishing the literary creations and news based articles on the blogs are now general but the accuracy and credibility of blogs are often questioned.
Prospects and Problems of Online in Nepal:
Internet or online journalism can be a significant solution of geographic difficulties for transportation (of information and news papers) in Nepal. According to Internet World Status, there are more then a million computer sets in the country today. The ratio of increment of computers is nearly 45 thousand sets every year. And 625,800 Nepalese are estimated to use internet within Nepal (up to 2010). Internet is also used in the field of commerce and banking. Similarly www.muncha.com, www.thamel.com etc have started online marketing in Nepal. The UTF-8 and UTF-16 system of Unicode fonts have helped Devnagari script to be published online helping the Nepalese art and literature to blossom. Nepalese users are now linked to various social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, myspace, hi5 etc and after all to the entire human kind of the world.
But still millions of Nepalese are illiterate and billions haven't access to the internet. The cost of computer and internet charges of internet service providers (ISP's) are very high in comparison to per capita income of Nepalese. Due to the expensive cost of internet, thousands of lower and middle class people are using the PC either as a typewriter or as a video monitor. The frequent power shortage or cuts in the urban areas and no electrification in the rural areas are forcing Nepalese to remain indifferent of computer and the information technology. Government of Nepal's plan to build IT park and launce e-governance is limited into papers. So, it can be declared that the case of absence of the private investors to internet market would keep Nepalese online sector at the primitive age.
Legal Aspects to Web
The world is having a debate on the model of cyber law and internet related regulations. The worldwide accepted 'Internet Protocol' advocates uncensored sites. But United States, credited as the birthplace of internet, promulgated a cyber law named 'Communication Decency Act (CDA)' on 1996 and imposed censorship or ban on the pornographic sites. Since, numbers of nations have prepared cyber laws and are controlling terrorism and pornography related pages. For example, the neighboring People's Republic of China has developed a strong mechanism to control internet crimes and cyber disorders. The Government of Malaysia has banned more than 200 thousands web pages and blogs. Korea DPR doesn't allow internet's use within its territory but has developed the world's second largest intranet only after the US based Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), with all basic facilities of World Wide Web such as chat room, social networks, news pages, distance learning, business pages and multimedia.
In case of Nepal the Electronic Transaction and Digital Signature Act of 2004 (ETDSA), imposed through an ordinance states a provision of ban on the site disturbing national interests and integration. It regulates online commerce and financial transactions and criminalizes certain online behavior, including hacking and fraud and also provides criminal penalties, including fines and up to five years in prison, for the publication of "illegal" content on the Internet (though it provides no definition of illegal content), or for the publication of hate speech or speech likely to trigger ethnic strife. Similarly, Clause 19 and 20 of Telecommunication Act - 2053 allows the government to control and monitor any ISP or site. And the National Broadcasting Act of 1993 and the National Broadcasting Regulation of 1995 provide for fines and/or imprisonment for broadcasting content likely to cause ethnic strife or social unrest, undermine national security or moral decency, or conflict with Nepali foreign policy. During the 2061's Royal takeover, twenty Nepalese news sites were blocked under these acts and ordinance. Unfortunately, the Government that could ban the news sites is not monitoring the pornographic sites at all, leaving very bad consequences, basically to the child and teenagers. Various blog pages and sites are posting or publishing pornographic or copy righted articles, but the Government of Nepal seems to be total ignorant to these issues.
Top ten Nepali online news portal
ekantipur.comInternet or online journalism can be a significant solution of geographic difficulties for transportation (of information and news papers) in Nepal. According to Internet World Status, there are more then a million computer sets in the country today. The ratio of increment of computers is nearly 45 thousand sets every year. And 625,800 Nepalese are estimated to use internet within Nepal (up to 2010). Internet is also used in the field of commerce and banking. Similarly www.muncha.com, www.thamel.com etc have started online marketing in Nepal. The UTF-8 and UTF-16 system of Unicode fonts have helped Devnagari script to be published online helping the Nepalese art and literature to blossom. Nepalese users are now linked to various social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, myspace, hi5 etc and after all to the entire human kind of the world.
But still millions of Nepalese are illiterate and billions haven't access to the internet. The cost of computer and internet charges of internet service providers (ISP's) are very high in comparison to per capita income of Nepalese. Due to the expensive cost of internet, thousands of lower and middle class people are using the PC either as a typewriter or as a video monitor. The frequent power shortage or cuts in the urban areas and no electrification in the rural areas are forcing Nepalese to remain indifferent of computer and the information technology. Government of Nepal's plan to build IT park and launce e-governance is limited into papers. So, it can be declared that the case of absence of the private investors to internet market would keep Nepalese online sector at the primitive age.
Legal Aspects to Web
The world is having a debate on the model of cyber law and internet related regulations. The worldwide accepted 'Internet Protocol' advocates uncensored sites. But United States, credited as the birthplace of internet, promulgated a cyber law named 'Communication Decency Act (CDA)' on 1996 and imposed censorship or ban on the pornographic sites. Since, numbers of nations have prepared cyber laws and are controlling terrorism and pornography related pages. For example, the neighboring People's Republic of China has developed a strong mechanism to control internet crimes and cyber disorders. The Government of Malaysia has banned more than 200 thousands web pages and blogs. Korea DPR doesn't allow internet's use within its territory but has developed the world's second largest intranet only after the US based Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), with all basic facilities of World Wide Web such as chat room, social networks, news pages, distance learning, business pages and multimedia.
In case of Nepal the Electronic Transaction and Digital Signature Act of 2004 (ETDSA), imposed through an ordinance states a provision of ban on the site disturbing national interests and integration. It regulates online commerce and financial transactions and criminalizes certain online behavior, including hacking and fraud and also provides criminal penalties, including fines and up to five years in prison, for the publication of "illegal" content on the Internet (though it provides no definition of illegal content), or for the publication of hate speech or speech likely to trigger ethnic strife. Similarly, Clause 19 and 20 of Telecommunication Act - 2053 allows the government to control and monitor any ISP or site. And the National Broadcasting Act of 1993 and the National Broadcasting Regulation of 1995 provide for fines and/or imprisonment for broadcasting content likely to cause ethnic strife or social unrest, undermine national security or moral decency, or conflict with Nepali foreign policy. During the 2061's Royal takeover, twenty Nepalese news sites were blocked under these acts and ordinance. Unfortunately, the Government that could ban the news sites is not monitoring the pornographic sites at all, leaving very bad consequences, basically to the child and teenagers. Various blog pages and sites are posting or publishing pornographic or copy righted articles, but the Government of Nepal seems to be total ignorant to these issues.
Top ten Nepali online news portal
nagariknews.com
thehimalayantimes.com
onlinekhabar.com
myrepublica.com
nepalnews.com
nepalipatra.com
filmykhabar.com
nayapatrika.com (322)
nepalitimes.com (408)
Top 10 online news portal globally
news.yahoo.com
bbc.co.uk\news
nytimes.com
huffingtonpost.com
weather.com
my.yahoo.com
reddit.com
msnbc.msn.com
foxnews.com
guardian.co.uk
List of top ten websites globally
You Tube
Yahoo
Blogger
Baidu.com
Wikipedia
Windows Live
qq.com
REFERENCES
www.home.comcast.net
www.webopedia.com
www.alexa.com
wekepedia.com
answers.com
Dhungana KP, FNJ annual report 2066 BS
History of journalism, Dujel Mark
High Level Media Commission 2063
McQual Denis, Mass Communication Theory, 2007
George Cherian, Contentious Journalism And The Internet, 2006
Prepared by Prajwal Oli for BROADCAST JOURNALISM AND MEDIA JMC 544 as a seminar paper for Masters 2nd year for Tribjuwan University
