This blog might be a useful read for Nepalese diaspora, and many individuals from around the world who keep their hearts and interests with Nepal, net necessarily they should have visited Nepal. However, Nepal – an extremely beautiful piece of sovereign land between China and India has been frequented by many amazing hearts and thinkers across the globe.
This piece of little guidance also proves useful as we have been going through a new-normal (mostly remaining less mobile and isolated at homes) caused by the pandemic caused by the new kind of corona virus found in 2019 in Wuhan, China.
So, here comes the million Dollar question – Where can I read the authentic news, views, and real-time updates on Nepal?
You must be expecting the professionally written pieces (along with images / pictures) that come through authentic journalism channels of Nepal, digitally. Such written pieces are mostly found in Nepali language. The English editions of such channels exist too.
Basically, one can read news and views on Nepal through the news portals and online e-papers provided by the media companies. Now-a-days, many young people in Nepal do not buy paper versions of these news as they get news in their screens – websites, Facebook pages of the news agencies, applications (HamroPatro app collects headlines from the widest of the sources of Nepal.). Personally, I believe that the paper versions can offer more advantages in weight, than e-versions.
News-Portals of Nepal
Online news-portals in Nepal are run by existing print media, radios and televisions. However, number one singleton online news portal of Nepal is OnlineKhabar.com which does not have apparently its own print, radio or TV. Other popular singleton news portals of Nepal are SetoPati.com, DeshSanchar.com (Till the date, we have not found the English version of its portal. Every evening, they upload video news bulletins though.), Ratopati.com among many.
Online news-portals of print media also come to competition to the existing popular news- EKantipur.com (Nepali version only). Nagariknews, thehimalayantimes.com (English only), Annapurnapost.com, Gorkhapatraonline.com and nayapatrikadaily.com are much popular than any other. However, the online-portal of other print media and those of radio stations / TV channels are increasingly becoming popular – for example – news24nepal.tv, onlineradionepal.gov.np and so on.
English versions of few of the above listed news-portals are listed in order below:
OnlineKhabar EN, SetoPati EN, Ratopati English Edition*, The Kathmandu Post, myRepublica online – Nagarik Network, The Annapurna Express, The Rising Nepal, Online Radio Nepal English Edition.
* Ratopati offers Hindi Edition as well.
While I am writing this blog, all these online news portals serve the news, views and articles for free of cost.
Online E-Papers from Nepal
Most of the daily newspapers of Nepal offer online e-papers as well which are mostly provided for free of cost and best utilised mostly by Nepali people in the diaspora and in the country.
In this section, I have listed and written few lines about most popular newspapers of Nepal and their e-paper versions. All of them are currently freely available. It seems like Kantipur Publications may introduce fees earlier than other publications so that we will continue reading their products as e-paper versions in our screens.
- Kantipur Daily (Nepali): This e-paper comes in a dashboard along with other print products’ e-papers from the same media house. You need to login with Facebook to be able to read the products from the media house, popularly called as Kantipur Publications Private Limited. While I made an account with this, they had given me FREE TRIAL, however they have not made it clear when the end date of free trial is. This media house also owns a news and general TV channel called Kantipur TV, a cinema TV channel called Kantipur Cineplex, and nationwide stations of Radio Kantipur.
- The Kathmandu Post (English): To read this paper as e-paper, you need to login using your Facebook account to access a dashboard that belongs to Kantipur Publications Private Limited. Read more details above. You can also read other print products from the same publication that are published in weekly and monthly basis.
- The Himalayan Times (English): Before the arrival of online media, especially social media platforms, this English language daily newspaper lived in the youth-hearts very well. This paper is believed to be the best English language print media of Nepal in terms of quality of written pieces. It also has extra focus on youth, children, food, and travel. You just need to click e-paper written on the top right corner of its official website. And yes, its free to read as for now.
- Annapurna Post (Nepali): You need to navigate and see top right corner of its official website to be able to read this increasingly popular Nepali language national daily paper. In its dashboard – called as the Annapurna E-paper, there are also other print media to read for free.
- GorkhaPatra (Nepali): Do you know that it is the oldest national daily of Nepal? In fact, this is owned by Nepal government as state’s daily paper. You need to navigate and see the top right corner of its official website where you can see a link to access the e-paper.
- The Rising Nepal (English): This is the English edition of Nepal Government’s daily paper. In its official website, you can see the link to access the e-paper when you look around the top right corner of its window.
I may also write other articles in future on how to access radios and TVs of Nepal from diaspora and over the internet.
