Popular Nepali blogs like Mysansar.com have been accusing The Himalayan Times and Annapurna Post of publishing news biased towards India. Being a foreign invested organization, it is likely that the news it covers would be as per foreign interest. It is an important issue that needs to be researched by Nepalese government followed by proper action. This post is about bad business ethics of THT, but a different one than above.

It is common practice for online media to place advertisement on their web-site. That is their only source of revenue. But THT is using inappropriate technique to increase their online revenue from advertisement. It is required that advertisements that are cost-per-click (publishers are paid for every click on ads) be identified clearly as advertisement. On the contrary, THT is intentionally displaying ads as news with the motive of increasing the number of clicks on the ads. See the Google ad below which the THT featured as ‘Related News’.

TheHimalayanTimes.com featuring Google ad as Related News

You can see this for yourself at THT unless they change it.

The practice of misleading readers is the most condemnable act from a media house; be it for money or anything else. When THT can boldly feature ads as ‘Related News’ for few cents; on what basis can we trust that their news is unbiased. In my honest opinion, the few cents from the additional click is not worth the bad impression THT will gain from this malpractice. It is something we would never do at Rangeen Chara!