Congratulations to radio listeners! Now all radio lovers can hear the breaking news on FM radios until the Supreme Court delivers the final verdict. The Supreme Court has issued an interim order to the government's ordinance that prevented the Frequency Modulation (FM) radio operators from airing the news. Instead of news, the government wanted the FM radios to transmit information pertaining to health, education, population, environment, weather or developmental issues. The Supreme Court has issued a historical order. The order came in response to a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) writ filed by advocate Tulsi Ram Niraula. We welcome the judicial activism shown by the apex court of the country in protecting the basic human rights, and the right to information. This order has boosted the confidence of the general public in the apex court, for which the credit goes to Supreme Court and the two justices issuing the order -- Min Bahadur Rayamajhi and Anoop Raj Sharma.

The question of competence and honesty has been oft-repeated about the judicial system of the country, and the Supreme Court is not an exception. In many occasions, the apex court's verdicts have been seriously controversial. However, the apex court has always come up resilient. In the past, the Supreme Court has given so many landmark decisions that the people who believe in the rule of law and pluralism under the country's existing constitution have regained their faith in the apex court. If the Supreme Court shows the judicial activism that it has demonstrated in some of the cases in safeguarding the spirit of the Constitution of Nepal 1990, democracy will fructify in this country. And no autocratic dictator will ever succeed in hijacking people's rights by abusing certain constitutional provisions.

Supreme Court's (November 10) denial to issue a stay order to the government's ordinance had raised eyebrows of the human rights activists and media people including the Nepal Bar Association. The Bar had even decided to boycott the SC bench for a day, which was, however, withdrawn following an understanding between the Bar and the Bench. It is heartening to note that even the Supreme Court has realized that the government was not following its decisions and was, instead, going off board to gag the press. The other day the apex court issued an order to continue transmission of Sagarmath Radio and its news. Today the apex court came up with yet another strong order, which allows all the FM stations to freely transmit news and views. Accordingly, all the FM stations, including Kantipur FM, have resumed their news transmission. FM radios ought to understand the impact and influence of their voice. Also, they should not shy away from informing their listeners -- the right to information.

(Nov 30, 05, The Kathmandu Post, Editorial)