Cable operators in Nepal ban Indian news channels
DHARAMSALA, 10 July: Every Indian news channels, except for the Indian state owned Doordarshan news has been banned in Nepal.
“The Multi-System Operators (MSO) have decided to stop the broadcast of Indian news channels in Nepal. The decision will come into effect, immediately, on Thursday,” reported Nepal’s English daily, The Himalayan Times.
The cable operators from Nepal have cited “unfounded reports on Nepal carried by some of the Indian news channels, including their defamatory ‘shows’ on the Nepali Prime Minister along with the Chinese envoy.”
“These measures follow the events wherein an Indian news channel, Zee Hindustan, broadcasted an imaginative and defamatory programme linking PM Oli with the Chinese ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi,”
Though there was no official ban on Indian news channels by the Nepal government, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the report noted that the spokesperson of the ruling Nepal Communist Party has slammed the India media for what it called “nonsense reports on matters related to Nepal and the Nepali government.”
However, citing people familiar with the development, The Hindustan Times reported that “the Nepalese political leadership was particularly irked by derogatory references to Oli and the Chinese envoy by an Indian news channel, which suggested the premier could be ‘honey trapped’ by the ambassador.”
