ANNEX : 2 NEPAL LAW SOCIETY, CA SECRETARIAT AND INTERNATIONAL IDEA ORIENTATION ON CA WORKING PROCEDURES AND ROLE OF THE MEDIA FOR EFFECTIVE REPORTING MECHANISM PROCEEDING REPORT 17th December2008 1. BACKGROUND Nepal now is standing at the threshold of history. As the consequences of the historical people's movement of 2006 and other various struggle fought against autocratic monarchy Nepalese people are going to promulgate the constitution by the representatives. For that purpose historical Constituent Assembly election has already been performed. The Constituent Assembly Members (herein after CA members) have already been involved in this great job. Fourteen thematic committees have been formed and the schedule for the job has already been published. With the election of committee presidents pushed this great job one step ahead. Constitution making being tough job CA members needs to be given support in different ways such as, capacity building and so on. In support of constitution making process Nepal Law Society and CA Secretariat with cooperation of International IDEA have been starting various programs in this regard. In this connection the positive role of media may be of high importance to build the relation between people and Constituent Assembly. Therefore, Nepal Law Society has decided to conduct orientation cum training for CA Media on "CA working procedures and role of the media for effective reporting mechanism" in partnership with Constituent Assembly and in cooperation with International IDEA. The program was held on 17 December 2008 at Hotel Everest Kathmandu. 2. OBJECTIVE: To inform CA office bearers and media on CA rules of procedures To discuss on CA committee system, working procedures and CA working calendar Interact between CA Secretariat officials and CA media personals on effectiveness of the CA process information system To interact on role and responsibility of CA official, CA media 3. INAUGURAL SESSION One day orientation on CA Working Procedures and Role of the Media for Effective Reporting Mechanism was organized on 17 December 2008, at Hotel Everest Kathmandu. The program was chaired by Manohar Prasad Bhattari, General Secretary of Constituent Assembly. Krishna Man Pradhan, Executive Director, Nepal Law Society highlighted the orientation program and project to the participants. The summary of the inaugural session is as follows- 39
Objective Highlights- Anil Kumar Sinha, General Secretary of Nepal Law Society Mr. Sinha highlighted the orientation program and Nepal Law Society's past and ongoing activities. Mr. Sinha further stated that Nepal Law Society will conduct various activities in relation to CA which may help to make CA more transparent. Remarks - Raj Kumar Regmi, Chairperson, Parliamentary Affairs Media Society The program for us is of great importance because we are at the threshold of constitution making. All constitution making process are included within CA regulation 2008. We need to have through information on concerned regulations. Media person should work as the bridge between constituent Assembly and people. Media persons are responsible to bring the voices of people to CA and information on CA activities should be provided to people. We hope the program shall be fruitful to us. Remarks - Leena Rikkila- Tamang, International IDEA Mrs. Rikkila- Tamang explained about the International IDEA and its past and ongoing activities in Nepal. She said, Nepal, Now is in path of making a new constitution. International IDEA is pleased to have opportunity to support Nepalese people in this great job. She further stated, media may play important role in constitution making process by raising the people's voices. If media, CA secretariat and civil society work together CA members will be empowered and should make new constitution as people's expectation she added. Remarks - Hon'ble Purna Kumari Subedi, Vice chairperson, CA Highlighting the role of Media, Ms. Subedi said, 50% role in constitution making could be expected from media. What the subject matter discussed in various committees in CA need to be disseminated by media in the one hand and CA should be aware of the issue what people want, on the other. Media only can fulfil this objective. Constitution making is only possible with unity of all sectors. She expected the positive and supportive role of media in future too. Chief guest remarks - Rt. Hon'ble Subash Nembang, chairperson, Constituent Assembly Rt Hon'ble Nembang extended his hearty thanks to organizers for organising such valuable program when country is in the verge of important job of constitution making. Papers presented at the program, are useful and rich in subject matters. The thoughts expressed in the papers shall obviously be useful for CA. Mr. Nembang further stated that what media person know, that is known by public at large. It depends on us to what extent CA to be made transparent and accountable. Constituent assembly regulation has been adopted and necessary mechanism and procedures have been set out. Now we have to complete our job basing on CA regulations. Constitution shall be promulgated by February 2011, he expected. Vote of thanks - Krishna Prasad Pandey, Secretary, CA Mr. Pandey focussed on relation between CA Secretariat and CA media. He welcomed to the media to come some suggestions and feedback on the effective coordination between us. He also gave thanks to all participants spokes and delivers the remarks in the opening sessions as well as participants from different media. Especially he gave thanks for the International IDEA who supported the program financially and academically. Closing Remarks from Chairperson - Manohar Prasad Bhattrai, General Secretary, CA Mr. Bhattrai summarised the inaugural sessions remarks and requested to the media and CA officials to work together. He also comes to the table if they have any queries and issues related to the CA process and day to day functions. He also expected from the media to follow the CA working calendar and communicate the people CA related information 40
through the media. He also thanks to all participants and resource persons who involved in the orientation program. 4. WORKING SESSION ONE The first session of the program was chaired by Madhav Poudel, the Secretary of Ministry of Law, Justice and CA Affairs. The first paper on Responsibilities of CA, its Working Procedurals and Working Calendar Working "was presented by Tek Prasad Dhungana, Joint Secretary, CA Secretariat and Legal Advisor. He mainly focused on necessity of constitution and its process of enactment, responsibility of CA, code of conduct of CA member and schedule of CA. This paper highlighted some major issues which are as follows- Constitution and its importance Constitution making process CA and its importance Responsibilities of CA Differences between CA and Legislative -Parliament CA working procedurals Major features of the CA rules Code of conduct for CA members CA Calendar- Necessity, legal basis, major issues Expectation from media on CA process After the presentation completion, the participants were discussed on the paper. The summary of the discussion are as follows; Ek Raj Giri Mr. Giri was of the opinion that CA regulations 2065 are not clear on composition of legislative committee and no distinction is made between central legislative committee and legislative committee. It needs to be clear whether they are same or different. It is not clear which language be used in CA, mother tongue or national language? Sushil Pant Constitutional Committee has been regarded as a main Committee and the committee includes senior leaders from major parties. It is said that there is the marathon between leaders to be in that committee, whether the other committees are useless? Mr. Pant questioned. Narad Gautam Monitoring Committee on code of conduct is unclear. The schedule prescribed in regulations is uncertain to be implemented, when it will start to be implemented? Scheduled provisions have already been violated; does it comply with CA regulation? He questioned. Tejendra Kafle, Kantipur Daily. Mr. Kafle requested to make clear an inductive and deductive method. He also gave thanks to the paper presenter for his valuable efforts to prepare the paper and sharing with participants. Govind Dhital 41
Why framing of constitution from Constituent Assembly has been regarded as best method. Is not there any other alternatives? CA regulations have also mentioned on the code of conduct of media persons. Restriction has been imposed to publicize the matters discussed in committees. It allows publicizing necessary things. CA members also must be aware of their code of conduct, Mr. Dhital suggested. Harihar Yogi, Dainik Dot.com Paper has given emphasis on code of conduct for media persons but no emphasis has given on the part of CA member. Punya Bhandari, Sagarmatha FM CA regulations are not made gender sensitive. The term "President" is an example. We still repeat the mistakes. He viewed. Saroj Dahal, Sagarmatha Changes is necessary not only for media person but for all. Parliamentary Secretariat also needs to be changed. When leaders are changed, media itself will be changed automatically. We the media persons publicise only truth. Where good job has been done there is no probability of publishing bad news. To media persons, what they see they write, Mr. Dahal said. Kiran Giri, Independent Journalist Society Does CA have no alternatives? Is it a best method for framing constitution? Discussion in committees should be matured. If discussion in committee is not standard, media person can't produce good news, he claimed. Mr. Chiranjibi Dhungana It would be better if leaders of major political parties have participated the program. Because common consensus could be made from all parties for making constitution. Code of conduct needs to be implemented to political leaders then media persons. Political leaders need to be in track, Mr. Dhungana opined. Karna Chhetri, Independent Journalist Society The new constitution making process is very challengeable but not impossible. People have high expectation from the political parties and government. People have not easy access to the formal court who are not getting service from the government or who are facing different issues and problems. Madan Prasad Mukti New constitutiona shall be incorporated to all issies including languages, political and social rights. Which was not covered by the Nepal's Constitution 1990. Anil Bogati Is there any relation between Commission on Restructuring of State and other committees? If any controversy areas between them how to resolve them? he questioned. Bikal Devkota Print media also need to be involved in making opinion in public. Government medias alone are not sufficient for that purpose. Call for suggestions for constitution making process through Radio Nepal resulted in a single suggestion. Therefore, involvement of private sector is the must, Mr Devkota provided suggestion. Narendar Saha The chair person shall be elected timely as per the CA working calendar. CA has constituted 14 different committee for the CA process and 10 committee for the Legislative parliament. 42
Shyam Luitel Method of opinion collection needs to be clear. If people of particular ideology shall be gathered and taken opinion shall it meet the objective of opinion collection? He was suspicious. Mr. Arjun Bhandari, Himalayan Times It's not clear that whether the decisions could be taken unanimously or by majority votes. The paper states that if the decision could not be taken unanimously, decisions shall be made by majority votes. Does method imply to the decision making process of all committees? He questioned. Mr. Bhandari had also some queries on the writing of preamble at the first meeting of the committees. He said, preamble is to be prepared when all the issues are settled. Mr. Sachin Gautam, ABC Television. If constitution making process be transparent, media persons need to have free access for the collection of information. As soon as media person are given information, information shall be supplied to people in right time. Therefore media person should have easy access to meeting. Let's also think about opinion collection through Email, internet, he suggested. Tirtha Bhandari One of the important tasks in a schedule is opinion collection. But the time fixed for opinion collection is insufficient. Only a week is scheduled for opinion collection and draft. Do we have such fast mechanism? He questioned. Tank Pant, Nepal Samachar Patra Everyone has to follow regulations, but Mr. Girija Prasad Koirala has violated the rule being absent in first meeting. CA is said to be transparent but the regulations contain the provisions of confidentiality. Mr. Pant disclosed the controversy. Promod Dahal, Radio Nepal Mr. Dahal had some queries on deductive and inductive method. At the same time he was suspicious of deductive method. Ganesh Basnet, Channel Nepal Emphasis is given only to the roll of media person regarding the schedule, (time frame) and challenges. Expectation from media is superfluous. Is it possible to conduct the interaction program regularly? We need foreign aid even to conduct such small interaction program. How to manage the expenditures? And to what extent we expect from foreigners? Beside this the theory part of paper well. He said. Yadu Devkota We have the attitude to seek from foreigners. Such interaction program could be conducted in the conference hall of CA secretariat. 61 members should be there in constituent Assembly. Only 60 members in the committee are pronounced. Is there any provision to add one more member? He questioned. Mr. Devkota further gave emphasis on free access of journalist to CA secretariat. Naresh Paper beautifully has mentioned the role of Media persons but it lacks to mention the role of CA secretariat itself. It would be better if some space is given to CA business. Dhruba Sinkhada In which language people are to be informed. If national language is being used what about the people who have no understanding of Nepali language? In such a situation CA needs to have service from linguists and information's need to be supplied in mother tongue of people in particular sector. 43
Response from the paper presenter When discussion came to an end, addressing all question raised by participants paper presenter Mr. Dungana said, no doubt media persons have to write what they visualize. The working area of committee includes centre and provinces and their functions should be determined. Constitutional committee is supposed to be major committee among all. All activities of this committee do not remain confidential. Only drafting procedure shall be remain secret but it does not mean that all information shall be restrained. No Rights are absolute. There are certain limits over the rights. To some extent rights are restricted. Such restriction shall also be applied to the press. Some matters are to be confidential. It is apparent that preamble usually is written after the frame work of constitution is prepared. Addressing queries of participants Mr. Dhungana said deductive method is the one where basic principles are determined previously and constitution is made within the frame work of those principles. But according to the inductive method basic principles are not determined previously and constitution is framed with open discussion. All party should have equal share in constitution making. Endeavour of the only party may not be enough. Constitution, made through CA is not claimed to be best but what the procedure used in framing constitution is said to be the best. Support from the media is highly expected. By no angle Constituent Assembly should be made weak. Media support will be of high importance. CA Regulations are having some sort of deficiencies regarding gender sensitive language. The word "president" is brought into the Regulation with the influence of interim constitution. We have to eye on results, not on terminologies, he said. Disseminating the information through radio Nepal only was mistake to some extent. CA Secretariat was calling for suggestion from people within 15 days but sufficient suggestions could not be collected. From now onwards information shall be disseminated from all Medias. Obviously committee meeting could not be held timely. To some extent it was the violation of rule. We rather eye on spirit than procedure, he suggested. Mr. Dhungana made clarification on the issue of mother language and said we need to be sensitive. Remarks from Chair Concluding the session, Chairperson Madhav Paudyal said, most of the participants are having question on constitution to be best enacted by constituent Assembly. But the thing is not like that. The constitution enacted by CA is not claimed to be best but the process of making constitution by CA is highly democratic. Therefore it's to be said better constitution. Each article of the constitution is extensively discussed which is impossible in referendum. People have to answer in yes or no form. While making constitution many of the things need to be kept confidential. Constitution is not document for short term. Preamble is regarded a gate way of constitution and it resembles total structure of constitution; therefore preamble will be written later when all the maters are settled. 5. WORKING SESSION TWO Chair- Krishna Prasad Pandey, Secretary, CA Second Session of the program was chaired by Krishna Prasad Pandey, Secretary, CA. He introduced to the paper presenter K.P. Gautam who is a senior journalist of Nepal. Paper Presentation- K.P. Gautam joint editor, Gorkha Patra National Daily K.P. Gautam joint editor, Gorkha Patra National Daily presented the paper entitled Effective Role of Media for CA proceedings. Mr. Gautam, In course of his presentation said, at present Constituent Assembly has been a major political centre, where all issues of people's concern are to be discussed. Press has the obligation to brought people's voice to 44
constituent Assembly and issues discussed in Assembly to people. Mr. Gautam emphasized that CA Secretariat should be aware to prevent the incorrect news. Perhaps this is the first program conducted solely with media persons. He drew attention to previous incidents where media persons were neglected and defamed. Mr. Gautam further stated, there should be one door policy for dissemination of information. Media persons should have easy access to information. Distribution of press pass should be made easy. It would be better if committee secretary be appointed as spokesperson, Mr. Gautam suggested. Mr. Gautam further stated that media person should not misuse their freedom. There should be a code of conduct for media persons. Constituent Assembly Secretariat should restrict the persons other than media persons from interring in the place allotted for media persons. To disseminate the information, media centre should be established in CA premises immediately, Mr. Gautam demanded. Floor Discussion Following the presentation the floor was open for discussion. Participation from various sector participated in discussions as follows- Narad Gautam, Gorkhapatra Daily. Whether the information could be publicizing through website? What sorts of procedure the CA Secretariat is going to adopt for information flow. Mr. Gautam questioned. Saroj Dahal Every one is emphasizing on transparency but what mechanism is being adopted? How media person get access to information resource. What the methods set out to reach the information from all 14 Committees Mr. Dahal asked. It is not up to people to seek information but it's the obligation of concerned authority to provide information. It is up to state to provide the information. Thus each media person assigned to look after the specific committee should be given Press pass, he demanded. Dharma Jung, Radio Journalist We, Radio Journalists are facing problems in absence of effective audio system, thus audio news should be made effective, Mr. Jung suggested. Sharad Raj Subedi Mr. Subedi said it is quite difficult for reporting from Parliament in lacking proper physical facilities. Sachin Gautam Paper speaks that media staffs shall be rewarded. It is the duty of media staff to facilitate to media persons, why they are going to be rewarded for their assigned job. Arrangement for proper pass should be made to have access in restricted area. It is inappropriate to reward those who disclose the confidentiality. He suggested. Khagendra Pant, Naya Patrika Mr. Pant demanded for access in CA with their press identity. CA secretariat should invite media in different occasion. Shyam Luitel Mr. Luitel viewed that CA staffs should be helpful to make CA functions transparent. There should be a good relation between CA staffs and media persons. Yadu Devkota, Channel Nepal Access to CA should be easier; Internet facilities need to be provided. Categorization of journalists should be made properly. Rajendra Chitrakar, Photo Journalist 45
Mr. Chitrakar demanded for taking photos on special occasion and personal Bio-data of CA members must be kept on web-site. Remarks from the paper presenter On the end of discussion session, joint secretaries Mukund Sharma, Tek Prasad Dhungana, Binod Adhikari and K.P. Gautam replied to the queries raised in discussion session. Finally senior journalist Bhairab Aryal told about his past experience and some interesting incidents of the past. Remarks from the Chair After completion of the discussion session, the chairperson of the discussion Mr. Pandey summarized the issues which were raised by the participants. Some issues which was related to the CA Secretariat as administrative and legal and to be responded by the Secretariat, he committed to follow the participants suggestions. He committed to provide right information in right time for the Media as well as simplify the entry to the different committee and CA house for the Media for news and views collection. 6. OUTPUT OF THE PROGRAM CA officials and Media personals participated full time High level and experienced resource persons were involved and they delivered legal and social information about constitution making process Participants openly debated with resource persons and helped in clarifying some issues All participants discussed extensively and each participant contributed in presented paper Participants became aware on principle of constitution, history of constitution making process, and challenges of the CA process Participants became aware about the role of the CA staffs and Media Rt. Hon'ble Chairperson and vice chairperson CA, CA General Secretary, officials, senior media personals participated and showed commitment for the improvement of past mistakes CA Secretariat officials realized the past mistakes and make commitment for future improvement Media personal realized the past mistakes and make commitment for future improvement. Feedbacks were received regarding the CA working procedural 46