Kathmandu, February 25
The main opposition party Nepali Congress has expressed its objections to some provisions of the Information Technology Bill that the government recently registered in Parliament.
The party has claimed that the government is trying to restrict people’s freedom of expression in the name of regulating the sector.
Party spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma says a meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee held on Sunday objected to the bill.
The leader demands that the government immediately correct some provisions of the bill.
“There is no disagreement that the state should be alert about controlling the misuse of social networking sites,” he says, “But, we cannot support the plan to gradually restrict social networks.”
The party has also demanded that the government amend provisions of the criminal code that restrict press freedom.
Meanwhile, officials have claimed that the proposed provisions of the It Bill are not as restrictive as rumoured now.
Stating that social media users need not panic about them, Rishi Ram Tiwari, an official at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, says, “The new law will not have any effect on those who use social media decently.”
