Oct 07, Kathmandu- The Press Council of Nepal has formally requested the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police to conduct an investigation and initiate action against 43 YouTube channels that are disseminating misleading, factual, and excessive content.

The medium has been sent for legal action for transmitting unilateral, rumourous, exaggerated and obscene material. The council has been sending the matter to the police for further action if it is not warned if it broadcasts wrong material through such means which are not registered as mass media.

According to the decision of the code of conduct monitoring sub-committee chaired by Council President Balkrishna Basnet, it has been decided to take action against various media including social networks.

The council issued a press release on Monday and said that since last Shrawan, efforts have been heightened to combat violence, terrorism, the dissemination of unfounded rumors, and the act of misleading and instilling fear in the public through sensationalized headlines with exaggerated thumbnails.

On the 20th of Chaitra last, the council has been making regular monitoring and taking actions related to YouTube management, cataloging and archiving.

In a statement issued by Ram Sharan Bohra, Co-Administrative Officer and Information Officer of the Council, it is stated about the action taken against various online media including YouTube.

The council has blacklisted 3 media outlets for disobeying the directives to follow the code of conduct since Shrawan. Such media will be deprived of any facility available from the state level. Among the blacklisted media are abpcrimenews.com, tvannapurna.com and setokhari.com. In this financial year, 76 complaints have been registered and 269 material councils have taken action through self-monitoring.

The Council has been working with the purpose of making the YouTube channel organized and dignified with the aim of doing journalism in accordance with the values ​​of journalism. According to the council, the regulation has been started in the form of procedures regarding the increasing number of complaints and complaints regarding the content transmitted through the YouTube channel.

In the statement, it is mentioned that 5 online media outlets that are operating under the media but are transmitting content that is against the Code of Ethics have been instructed to remove them, and other 5 media outlets have been asked to remove controversial content and ask for an explanation.

Similarly, warning to remove the contents of 4 unregistered web portals and social networks, otherwise action will be taken according to prevailing laws.

A correspondence has been sent to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority for the arrangement that a web portal that transmits content that is not properly operated, but disobeys despite repeated warnings, cannot be transmitted within Nepal.

Similarly, it is reported that the Council has placed special monitoring on Onlinepana.com, Diopost.com, swasthyalive.com, janatatimes.com, khaptadtv.com, goodtv.com, arthassanjal.com, dhwanikhabar.com, which are broadcasting controversial news. The council has also kept the detailed information of all the media involved in various actions on its website.