The Supreme Court on March 3, 2013 issued an interim order in the name of the government, asking it not to implement the new directives it brought as one-door advertisement directives. A single bench of SC Justice Girish Chandra Lal issued the order after initial hearing and summoned government authorities to attend a hearing on the case on March 13. The government had endorsed the directives that were to come into effect from March 14. A group of seven advertising agencies had demanded the SC order that would scrap the directives, reasoning that government issued the directive against Public Procurement Act and Good Governance Act 2007. In this regard, freedom1 Forum holds the opinion that the one-door advertisement directive the government brought seems good in the surface-level but it is practically cumbersome, and prone to non-implementation. It is against the Public Procurement Act too. Similarly, it aims at administrative control to the advertisement and raises the threat of political misuse. Therefore, the Court order is a positive step on this.
Freedom Forum is a prominent non-governmental organization in Nepal dedicated to institutionalizing democracy, protecting and promoting human rights, press freedom, freedom of expression, right to information, promoting audit accountability, open and accountable budget, public finance reforms, citizen engagement in public finance management and citizen participation in audit. Established in February 2005, the organization emerged in response to the political turmoil following Former King Gyanendra’s coup dated February 1, 2005, which imposed severe restrictions on media and democratic rights. A group of media professionals, legal experts, and academics founded Freedom Forum to safeguard Nepal’s hard-earned democratic freedoms during this repressive period.
