Bolstered by the Supreme Court stay order this week against the government for closing down the radio syndication service, Communication Corner, FM radio owners have intensified their nationwide protest program. The most dramatic protest will be to defy the government order and simultaneously broadcast news of King Gyanendra's departure for Doha on 13 June at 8PM on all FM stations throughout the country. The stations have already been broadcasting silence, blowing of conch shells and reading the news through loudspeakers from impromptu 'studios' at the main squares of all major towns.

There are nearly 60 non-government radio stations throughout the country employing 10,000 people and representing Rs 100 million in capital investment by businessmen, NGOs, district and village councils and ordinary citizens. Most stations are on the verge of bankruptcy because of a fall in ad revenues. Says Raghu Mainali of Save the Independent Radio Movement: "We need press freedom not just for ourselves, it is the citizen's right to information that is being violated." Sundar Mani Dixit of the Citizen's Committee for Peace and Development agrees, saying: "The curbs on the media have made a mockery of the claims this government makes about its commitment to restore democracy."