KP Oli, UML leader
"The press must not be excessively controlled. This is what the press has become-when it was free, it was going overboard, and now it isn't brave enough to fulfil its basic responsibilities. The press is now overly concerned with saving its own skin. It is not even writing against the controls on itself. It is even scared to print what we have to say about controls on the press. The press must not be totally free, it has to function within a code of conduct and within existing laws, and it must never shun responsibility. Even now it is said that the emergency was imposed with the acquiescence of the opposition parties. That is not true, the emergency was ordered by the government, because it was unsure of what other measures it could take without needing to impose a state of crisis. They could have discussed it with us, or asked us about other measures and we all could have discussed them and agreed or disagreed. The government preferred not to do that and went for the emergency instead, under Article 115 (7) of the Constitution, and suspended civil rights under Article 12, which again was unnecessary. Now the government needs to look for ways to make the situation in the country more flexible and it needs to lift the restrictions slapped on the press. It needs to formulate a code of conduct acceptable to all that can guide its own operations and also those of the security forces. But it isn't doing that yet. It talks about allowing rebels to surrender, but it is unclear where they can surrender and how. The press should also make efforts to fulfil its responsibilities and should continue fighting for the right to do that, the emergency does not disallow that. The situation we are seeing with the press is that if rules are not enforced, they write and say anything they please, but when there is some enforcement they begin to sing hymns in praise of the government. The press is not balanced. The volume of the praises it has been singing is deafening, it is turning the press into a farce."