Community Television in Nepal

By Catherine Edwards

Ratna Cable TV arose spontaneously from the efforts of Mahesh and Bouddha Shakya and the VCR and TV repair shop they have operated for many years in Tansen, a town in the lower Himalayas. In the early l990s, the Shakyas started downloading foreign programming from satellites and cabling together the houses of their neighbours to share the signal. In the absence of formal legislation concerning cable distribution of satellite signals, many cable "companies", if they can be called that, began to do the same thing all over Nepal. Some, as they grew, began to operate as commercial enterprises and charge subscription fees. A few have considered the idea of using the cable network to distribute locally produced programming, but Ratna Cable TV is the only one that has actually done so on a regular basis.

Space Time, a large Kathmandu based commerical cable company, opened a Tansen office last year offering more channels than Ratna and charging subscription fees. To protect its existing network and the principle of local programming, Ratna invested heavily in new decoders to keep pace with Space Time. Ratna began charging its subscribers for the first time to pay for them. By 1999. Ratna Cable offered its viewers 13 channels compared to Space Time's 18, but most viewers remained loyal to Ratna because they liked Ratna's Saturday local program (called, what else: The Local Program). Space Time's Tansen agent, frustrated at this situation, collected video clips from The Local Program and edited them out of context to make them look as if Ratna was a supporter of Nepal's United Marxist Leninist Party. Maoist guerrillas have been involved in violent incidents in Western Nepal for several years, and this was enough to cause Nepal's Ministry of Information and Communications to fine Ratna 7000 rupees and to suspend their licence. Mahesh was also threatened with imprisonment. Thanks to Ratna's local protectors, Mahesh avoided prison and Ratna was able to start up again under the new name of Shrinagar Cable last August, but their position remains precarious.

Nepal itself has only been a democracy since 1991, so the story of Ratna Cable is one of a country learning what democracy means. Until a fair and universal licencing system exists for regional television in the country, it will be impossible for TV journalists to exercise their right of freedom of expression. In fact, what I found most interesting in my training sessions with Shrinagar's volunteers is that they had difficulty with the basic idea of what it means to "have a voice". Their stories, while beautiful and creatively shot, tended to be light on message. I determined early-on that where they needed most work was in scriptwriting. But when I stood in front of their nine attentive faces and asked them what they were personally interested in researching and what they thought their neighbours might want to hear about, they had difficulty coming up with ideas! Unlike their North American counterparts, who in my experience all seem to walk into access centres with their own personal axe to grind (that's why they come), these shy self-deprecating people had trouble knowing what they wanted to say. They would come up with a general idea like "a story about handicapped people", but it was hard work to get them to the point that they could figure out what angle to take.

Shrinagar is located in an extremely beautiful area of Nepal, a half-day's journey from popular trekking startpoints. The staff welcomes visitors, especially visitors bearing spare parts or cast-off equipment! (They currently have two PAL S-VHS players, a couple of PAL S-VHS cameras, and an Amiga 1200 that was donated to them to do graphics last year.

If you are interested in assisting Shrinagar Cable, please get in touch with warr@nucleus.com or edwardscatherine @hotmail.com.