Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal, Bhojraj Ghimire has stressed that Radio Nepal should enhance its popularity by upgrading its programmes. In a programme,organized on the occasion of the 58th anniversary of the establishment of Radio Nepal, Chief Secretary Ghimire, said Radio Nepal has been losing its credibility in urban areas in comparison to rural areas and added that “listeners still tune Radio Nepal for dependable news and modern songs and it should pay attention to its quality to maintain its number of listeners.
(Source: The Rising Nepal)
Andy Sennitt comments: Radio Nepal is suffering the same problem as state-controlled media in many countries where commercial radio has recently been introduced. These state broadcasters are slow to respond to the competition, which they have never had before. Some of the most talented young broadcasters go to work for the commercial stations, while governments often don’t understand the urgency of investing in new technology to allow the state broadcasters to compete.
Of course, it would be better if the state broadcasters were converted into public broadcasters of the type we have in Europe, which is starting to happen in a few countries in Africa. But in the meantime, governments which want these stations to become more popular must give them the tools to do the job, and interfere less in the programming
(Source: R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)