JANUARY 11, 2009 A common forum of the private television channels- Television Broadcasters' Nepal (TBN) – declared emergency in private TV broadcast amidst a declaration gathering on January 8.It was informed at a press meet organized by the TBN that the emergency was declared citing 12-hours load shedding a day. During the power crisis, the private TV channels have closed their service for five hours- from 12:00 pm to 5:00 am- each day.
TBN Chairman R K Manandhar demanded the government provide alternative power supply.Similarly, Chairman Manandhar said seventy percent of the news in private channels was in government's priority list. However, the government does not provide any incentive and public welfare advertisements to such channels; he complained and made the demand at the same time.
Owing to the rising hours of power-cuts, various media, including FM radios, newspapers and online media across the country have halted and shortened their service and operational hours. Mostly community radios and newspapers outside valley have been affected due to load shedding, as they hardly afford for other means of power generation. Likewise, another factor causing trouble in the operation of media is the cut of advertisements triggered by load shedding.
"Community FM radios are passing through a hard time when business persons and local advertisement providers left to give advertisement in radios due to cut of operational hours of radios caused by load shedding", said Bhumiraj Chapagain, Station Manager of Vijaya FM in Gaindakot, Nawalparasi.
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