Word: shah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When in 1966 an unrelated law student named Khadga Shah wed the second daughter of King Mahendra, it marked the first time a commoner had ever entered into the royal family. Shah reflects that his marriage constituted "a step forward in a freer intercourse between people and the King...
Fourteen years later, that intercourse has become too free for comfort. A wave of street violence now threatens the stability of the 400-year-old Shah dynasty...
...this Shah considers necessary background to understanding his role in both press and politics in Nepal. At 41, he has been editor for eight years of Imali Bela, or Modern Times, one of four English-language dailies in the capital city of Kathmandu. (English is Nepal's second language.) At six to ten pages a day and a circulation of 45,000, his is one of the largest papers in the city, and he credits as well for having more "objective news" than the others...
Without denying his general sympathy for policies of the King, Shah asserts that in his paper, "As far as possible we try to avoid catering to a definite ideological clientele." But again this is a matter of degree. Circulation pays for barely a quarter of his paper's monthly cost, and advertising provides only an incremental addition. Because of the low literacy rate, "Readership is so limited that the entrepreneur does not think it worthwhile to advertise." The result: "You've got to be damn rich to subsidize your paper...
...newspapers must turn elsewhere for funding, and the ones that fail to find a supporter will fold. Modern Times was not destined to such a fate: Mr. Shah admits that the government subsidizes him 1000 rupees ($85), about one quarter of his monthly costs, just enough to keep his paper at subsistence. It is little secret that India, China and the Soviet Union also fund a number of Nepalese papers and Shah acknowledges as much. "When you have a Communist state on the north and a democratic state on the south, you just can't insulate Nepal from these influences...