Dhulikhel: Krishna Saru Magar, president FNJ Bagmati Province has emphasized that relying solely on traditional journalism is no longer sufficient to survive in today’s competitive media landscape.

Speaking at the closing session of a two day orientation program on “Investigative Journalism and the Use of AI” held in Dhulikhel on Saturday, Magar stressed that adopting advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and focusing on investigative journalism has become an urgent necessity.

The program was organized by the Bagmati Province Government’s Ministry of Social Development in coordination with the FNJ Bagmati Province.

“Integrating technologies like AI into investigative journalism is the need of the hour,” Magar said. “Such initiatives will significantly support making women journalists more techofriendly and enable them to raise social development issues more effectively and in depth.”

Magar also highlighted that private and community media outlets account for a large portion of the mass communication sector. He called for revising the existing circular that allocates government advertisements only to state owned media, urging authorities to ensure fair access for all media organizations.

He added that the Minister for Communications, after receiving a memorandum from FNJ Bagmati Province, assured that efforts are underway to address the issue and that the government remains supportive of small and self employed media outlets. Magar further stressed the need to eliminate irregularities in advertisement distribution by adopting a transparent, intermediary free system.

Chairing the event, Khuviram Adhikari Secretary of the Ministry of Social Development, urged participants to apply the skills gained during the training in their professional work and pledged to make such programs more refined and effective in the future.

Binod Neupane, President FNJ Kavre expressed confidence that such empowerment programs would help address the growing influence of social media and reduce the dropout rate among women journalists.

The two day training featured sessions by Sarita Dahal on the safety and gender equality of women journalists, Nitu Pandit on journalistic ethics and fake news and Ajay Sharma on AI-assisted news production.

A total of 21 active women journalists from 13 districts of Bagmati Province participated in the program.