No Freedom of expression in Nepal: Criminalization of freedom of expression

Criminalization of freedom of expression is an evolving problem that has been an issue of study and discussion. Especially in  developing countries due to lack proper policies and mechanism law is being misinterpreted in causing  by the government. The question that evolves here is whether the government wants to act like a regulator or facilitator?  Understanding the situation different laws and regulations are created to facilitate the public under various provisions of social welfare. For having clarity in understanding these provisions, these core values are segmented in various international laws.

In-fact, in today's world of globalization when there are no boundaries, any type of un-justice in and against is marked by standardization.  

The Nepal police has confirmed that they will arrest anyone who would be writing against them. In recent practice people have been arrested just for commenting or opining in social media site like facebook.
Under the Interim Constitution of Nepal secures the right of every Nepali citizen to freedom of expression and right to speak.
It is a sad thing, but how the government agencies are using the law to slack normal public instead of fighting criminals.

The article 47 of the Nepal Eletronic Act 2068  says
Publication of illegal materials in electronic form: (1) If any person publishes or displays any material in the electronic media including computer, internet which are prohibited to publish or display by the prevailing law or which may be contrary to the public morality or decent behavior or any types of materials which may spread hate or jealousy against anyone or which may jeopardize the harmonious relations subsisting among the peoples of various castes, tribes and communities shall be liable to the punishment with the fine not exceeding One Hundred Thousand Rupees or with the imprisonment not exceeding five years or with both.
(2) If any person commits an offense referred to in Sub-section (1) time to time he/she shall be liable to the punishment for each time with one and one half percent of the punishment of the previous punishment.

Abed El Rahman was arrested for commenting on a Facebook status and was put under police remand for 20 days. He had commented on a journalist’s facebook post of a story, ‘Improving security in Saptari’. Rahman on May 31 had commented as ‘how he to pay Nrs 50,000(USD 500) to bring back his looted motorcycle.’ He was released on Friday under the order of the Kathmandu District Court against the deposit of Nrs 5 thousand rupees (50 USD). The Saptari Nepal Police arrested Rahman under article 47 of Nepal Electronic Transaction Act 2063 for 5 years imprisonment and Nrs 0.1 Million (1000 USD) fine.

Similarly, in another case, Raju Prasad Sah was arrested for commenting against the current Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam, quoting him, “He should be shot in his back” on a photo that was shared on the official facebook page of the national daily. The Story was covered by a national Daily Naya Patrika that featured the photo of the current Home Minister of Nepal crossing the freeway neglecting public safety rules at a midday on a busy road.

CRUX
The government agencies trying to regulate  voices of people online is certainly not a proactive move. We live in democracy and in a democracy every individual has the right to speak and freedom of expression. Any individual getting arrested just for the sake of his statement that too in a social networking site is not acceptable. Criminalization in freedom of speech is not a scenario of  law, but it's a topic of discussion and research. The rigidity of the government agencies in understanding the law shows the wrong use of power and authority.    

Our Interim Constitution secures the basic rights of every citizen of Nepal, regardless of who he/she is.

EVERY INDIVIDUAL HAS THE RIGHT TO SPEECH AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

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Female Lawmaker assaulted what an irony every day hundreds of women live this

A news Published in the Himalayan Times dated  2014-06-11, reported that, " An unidentified man on Wednesday afternoon assaulted a female lawmaker  Rita Shahi,  representing Nepali Congress, right under the nose of the Constituent Assembly (CA) building in Baneshwor. Lawmaker Rita Shahi underwent a verbal spat with a fellow passenger in a tempo in which she was travelling. Later, when Shahi was preparing to get off the vehicle at her stop, the man thrashed her and ran away."

The next day, it made it to the news. The third day the crook was nabbed by #NepalPolice and was brought by the book.
My question is, there are 100s of Nepali women who get #sexuallyAssaulted #sexuallyHarressed in public transportations everyday and does anyone care?
Nobody cares!
So why this partiality, why is Nepal police more focused about a lawmaker and prioritizes power, status and symbol. Isn't a public service organization suppose to give priority to law and public first.

Why does normal public the tax payers  and citizen come in their least priority?

 Why is our system so power centered where the taxpayers are least bothered?

Are we suppose to be happy that something has happened or do we think its time things should change regardless of how these issues should be taken in consideration by Nepal police?

We need change in action......

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World Cup Fever 2014 in Nepal

With the FIFA World Cup 2014 running people are going simply crazy here in Nepal. The shops selling the official jerseys are running out of stock and the demand of official jersey is growing day by day. Everywhere in the streets and roads people can be seen wearing their favorite team jersey.

What old or young? All aged people  in their own passion are coming up with innovative ideas of promoting their team.






  

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Quality of Internet in Nepal

The Internet has become an integral part of our life. We use it in second, but today due to lack of standardization it is getting costlier as well as we have no clue about how it is being charged. 

From the fastest 3G service of any service providers (Ncell and NTC) money sweeps away in seconds, people have no idea about what is happening?  

Currently there are 7,788,001 GPRS  users while NT’s CDMA comes second with 192,632 users and WiMax service from NT has total 7,859 users. NT leads to 52 percent of entire market share on the internet, while Ncell has 46 percent. UTL and other ISPs have 1 percent of market shares each.

“WE WANT QUALITY IN TERMS OF STANDARDIZATION OF SERVICE AND RESOURCE UTILIZATION”

We want a definite mechanism in monitoring the bandwidth. Apart from that we all use broadband service in our homes. Most of the times, the Internet Service Providers (ISP) fail to acknowledge the rights of consumers in terms of providing better service and quality. 
At the beginning, we are promised with good customer service and quality bandwidth, but when it comes to real operation things don’t work the way it should be. 

Though the internet penetration rate has increased to 29.78 (Source: NTA’s second quarterly report) but the quality of service and customer service remains unchanged. The  bad customer service and hectic processes still hinder client at times of need when the internet has an error or problem. 

Customers and clients have to face a lot of problems in terms of troubleshooting and solving the errors. In-fact they have to waste their time, money and resource.  

Standardization of internet in Nepal is a must in terms of quality and resources. 
"Don't Keep your silence, Speak up and raise your voice 

If your ISP is not listening to you then its their problem its not yours. When you pay money its your right to get the promised bandwidth and internet service.

You have every right to demand #quality_of_service for the money that you pay.

Standardization is a must ....................

http://www.change.org/petitions/nepal-telecommunications-authority-standardization-in-quality-of-service-of-the-internet-in-nepal

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Customer service and professionalism that's what we lack in Nepal

You might be stunned by the fact that customer service in Nepal means to have a phone number and a person to entertain your calls. There will be no troubleshooting process, but someone will be picking up your call just for the sake of listening and then you are left with the error and problem to think about why you choose this service. You might then think about all the promotional campaign and their discount offers that gave you relief or motivation, but still it makes you feel the pain of not satisfying your objectives. 

Thinking endlessly, if you are smart then you would probably pull some strings to use your contact, only then things can roll or else you are left behind with the problem to repent why you choose this service.

This is the major case of multinational companies that are running their industry in Nepal. Especially the service industry that requires more customer service has been severely suffering with this disease of lack of professionalism. Though Nepal is moving towards globalization, but major the banks and service industry lack the concept of customer service and its performance.

Clients are getting bad feedback or they are not being followed up or it turns out to be a rude reply etc. All these actions are happening due to lack of enthusiasm, pressure and poor corporate culture where the Customer Service Representative (CSR) either skips the call or keeps it on hold due to less priority. His priority decreases in view of lack of motivation either directly from the leadership or corporate culture that is being practiced.

This is resulting in more bad publicity and marketing which is costing the company more in terms of resources and investment which they fail to realize. 

Having a million dollar campaign for marketing and spending less in the motivation of the CSR, certainly makes the Organization marketing strategy no worth or a big loss. 


Leadership, motivation and regular monitoring mechanism keep the customer service at top notch if any of this lacks then the circles breaches in resulting laziness, no motivation, ignorance and carelessness.
One thing that all marketing managers and Chief Executive Officer need to consider is the timely evaluation of customer service performance. It needs to be checked regularly and has to be updated with proper mechanism and protocol.

If this is not done on a regular basis, there is no point in having a customer service. An inefficient customer service that prioritizes in low results has no use and no performance. In-fact, it acts like a liability that builds pressure and spreads like fire engulfing the organizational culture with the zero performance.

So efficient customer service is a concept of motivating your CSR to work more effectively in marketing your brand with more precise and accurate approach. 

Mouth to mouth marketing is something that works like wonders and no marketing campaign can beat that and just by making your customer service effective and efficient you can increase your credibility as well as market yourself with high motivation to get optimum performance. 

Thus a smart marketing campaign is the campaign where the whole chain of marketing strategy fits the circle of promotion, production, performance and pleasure of the clients. 

Customer’s satisfaction can only be attained when your own staffs are happy and working in the most efficient and effective way.

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