Labor of Love: Media Monitoring Report '08

Labor of love!! As the director of the Media Monitoring Program (MMP) for Constituent Assembly elections, I had the  opportunity to work with many amazing people to assess Nepali media's role in the political process. The outcome was this 223-page (+ 33 in appendix) report on media coverage on the historic elections held in April 2008. I wrote and edited the report with Jagadish Pokhrel as co-author.

This study offers a wealth of data on the CA elections, with thorough qualitative and quantitative analyses. Some 100 media monitors were deployed across the country in the project carried out by Press Council Nepal (PCN) and supported by the Election Commission (EC) and other agencies like Foundation Open Society Institute (FOSI), ESP/DFID, OTI/USAID, and UNMIN.

This study should be useful for media monitoring in future elections for its approach and findings as well as for its historic import.

I asked Abin, the cartoonist, to caricature this prevailing mood of that time (see the  report, page # 62)!

Plus THIS: 

धर्म अधिकारी र जगदिश पोखरेल।  "संवधानसभाको निर्वाचन   र प्रेस:  समग्रमा संयमित, थोरैको  वर्चस्व", संहिता  (वैशाख–असार 2064), पृष्ठ 12-25. (My essay in Nepali on the findings published in Samhita  (#2, April-June 2008), a media journal published by Press Council Nepal).

My reflections on the MMP and its outcome. "Media and Elections in Nepal" in Media and Elections: A Handbook, the Asia-Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development, 2010, pp. 69-72.

Also: Covering Nepal's first election in nine years. A Q&A with AsiaMedia (April 11, 2008), a publication based at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) I discuss the challenges the Nepali press faced in covering Nepal's historic election in April 2008.