Cultural Survival stands in solidarity with people in Nepal, especially with Indigenous Peoples, against the government's decision on September 4, 2025, to ban 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The government claims this ban was put on social media platforms because they did not follow the registration regulations.
By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff)
By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff)
By Karma Rinji Sherpa, Station Manager, Radio Kairan 96.4 FM, Ramechhap, Nepal
Radio Kairan, a beacon of community radio in a remote village of Ramechhap district, Nepal, has successfully addressed a major challenge: updating outdated equipment that was hindering quality broadcasting. With support from the Cultural Survival Indigenous Community Media Fund, the station has been revitalized, allowing it to effectively serve listeners in their mother tongues of Sunuwar, Tamang, Sherpa, as well as Nepali.
Cultural Survival and our partner organizations in Nepal, including Nepal Tamang Women Association, Newa Misa Daboo, Sunuwar Women Society, Indigenous Women's League Nepal (IWL Nepal), and National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal (NIDWAN), submitted an alternative report on the situation of Indigenous women’s rights in Nepal for the 90th session of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which will take place in Geneva from February 3rd to 21st, 2025.
The Indigenous Rights Foundation uses ITV Nepal (a satellite television channel in partnership with Indigenous Television) to advocate for Indigenous rights and promote their languages. ITV Nepal produces programs in 20 Indigenous languages, increasing their voices and their access to the media. This has strengthened the use of Indigenous languages and promoted freedom of expression in Nepal.
Radio Triyuga 104 FM is located in Triyuga-12, Gaighat Udayapur in Koshi province, Nepal. The station was founded on January 4, 2007 by a group of local communities, mostly members of Indigenous communities, united in the Sagarmatha Information and Communication Cooperative. The station serves the Indigenous communities living in the districts of Udayapur, Siraha, Saptahari, Sunsari, Okhaldhunga, Khotang, Dhanusha, and Dhankuta, which collectively have almost 900,000 inhabitants.
AMARC Asia-Pacific's goal is to promote social justice and sustainable, democratic, and participatory human development by amplifying the voices of excluded and marginalized communities, including Indigenous Peoples, through community media. It aims to support popular access to communications and to advocate and promote the development of community radio.
By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff)
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.