The Press Council of Nepal has taken action against 183 online websites for news theft in the last one and a half years.

The council issued a statement on Wednesday. So far, 183 online media and web portals have been prosecuted for stealing news (copying and pasting) without permission.

It is mentioned in the statement that 143 media outlets have been asked for clarification, and 11 have been alerted.

Most of the media who were asked for an explanation had submitted a response with a commitment that they would not do so in the future. Correspondence has been sent to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority for necessary action against 29 web portals that are not registered or listed as media,’ said a statement issued by Ram Sharan Bohra, Co-Administrative Officer of the Council.

A meeting of the Press Council Journalist Code of Conduct Monitoring Subcommittee was also held on Wednesday.

The meeting has decided to take further action to discourage this trend.

In the meeting, it was decided to alert 89 media.
It has been decided to draw attention not to publish without permission in the coming days and to warn that further action will be taken according to the prevailing law and code of conduct if complaints are received that repeat such a trend. Similarly, it has been decided to instruct one to correct the mistake and one to publish a rebuttal, and to call the editor for a discussion because the answer of one media outlet is not satisfactory,” said the statement released after the meeting.