Nepali Times
Editorial
Star war correspondents


When domestic sources of credible information dry out, Nepalis have always turned to international news outlets. During the Panchayat it was the static-filled faraway voice of the BBC's Nepali and Hindi service. Today it is cable and the Indian satellite channels. But we got a dose of how completely wrong satellite news can be with the Zee News coverage of the IC814 hijacking. Even though this channel has been pulled out of the cable listings, take it from us: Indian satellite news vendors as a whole haven't reformed when covering Nepal. First off, they don't get their facts right, they have no news sense or ability to gauge the importance-or lack thereof-of events, and when they find out they got it wrong, they never issue retractions.

For six years while the Maoist insurgency raged in Nepal, the Indian press couldn't be bothered. Now they can't get enough of it. A blast at a multinational cola plant gets a page one headline, suddenly interviews with Prachanda are the rage, and they have even unearthed an ISI link and a trans-national Maoist plot to set up a "compact revolutionary zone".

And they are still getting things wrong. When three Maoist bomb-makers killed themselves while assembling an explosive at a temple in Itahari last week, an Indian TV news went on the air to say the Manakamana Temple had been bombed. Then they lead with shootouts in Nepalgunj when Nepalgunj was completely calm.

It's true. In times of war, truth is the first casualty.


LATEST ISSUE
638
(11 JAN 2013 - 17 JAN 2013)


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