January 16, Kathmandu. The program on the release of the Digital Rights and Security, Information Integrity and Election Reporting Handbook and the discussion on Election Reporting has been completed. In the program, stakeholders have expressed their views on how misinformation affects elections.

Speaking at the program, former Chief Election Commissioner Nilakantha Upreti said that the Election Reporting Handbook will be very useful for those who are learning journalism. He shared his experiences by saying that the role played by journalists in the elections cannot be compared to any other field. The date has been set, the country would have been election-ready if some problems that arose when half the nominations were made had been resolved, Upreti said.

He said that the parties will adopt various tactics to gain votes in their favor and the Commission will adopt all resources, from financial tools, to neutralize them, but journalists will use intellectual skills and powerful words. He said that just as the sattu spilled on the blanket cannot be completely removed, there will be no monitoring tools to ensure that the code of conduct is fully followed during the election. He said that even if he speaks directly on some issues, there will be no further evidence, and informed that technology will be used to kill messages that disrupt the election from the commission itself.

President of the Federation of Nepali Journalists Nirmala Sharma said that the federation aims to reach 9,550 members of the Federation of Nepali Journalists across the country for digital security and reliable information. The program emphasized that journalists and media are at greater risk due to misinformation, disinformation and hate speech in recent days, and that female journalists are at greater risk. It was also emphasized that digital tools have become a cause of insecurity in the course of investigative journalism.

Similarly, President of the Nepal Press Council Dr. Kumar Sharma Acharya said that there are separate codes of conduct for journalists and political parties during the election. He said, we have been monitoring regularly, but the commission also covers media that are within the ambit of the law and those that are not registered. In this situation, I am in doubt as to which rules we should take action under. However, he clarified that the council is trying to regulate so that such mistakes are not made in the first place, rather than tarnishing someone's reputation and apologizing.

National Election Observation Mission Chairman Gopal Krishna Siwakoti said that digital control is not easy. Although the youth of today are aware of the elections, he said that the misuse of digital information and technology platforms could be over 50 percent. He argued that if political finance is not transparent, there will be challenges in following the code of conduct.