Nepal Sports Journalists Forum on Wednesday formally launched the NSJF Academy with an aim to enhance the professional quality of sports journalists across the country.

According to Niranjan Adhikari, the NSJF vice president and academy coordinator, they will focus on three major areas including training, research and mentorship programme for sports reporters. The academy has also opened registration for mentorship programmes for its members.

The academy has announced to hold at least sports reporting training and workshops in all seven provinces of the country within a year and start the know-your-game series promptly. The series will be organised together with respective sports organisations focusing on technical aspects of the game.

According to NSJF, the umbrella organisation of sports journalists, they would begin the series with volleyball beginning on Thursday. "The series will run throughout the year and give multiple benefits to sports associations. First, media persons would get in-depth knowledge of the game and that would enable them to present news analytically as well as get more media coverage rather than being limited to win or defeat," said NSJF president Durga Nath Subedi.

The launching ceremony was attended by office bearers of the major sports associations, National Sports Council, Nepal Olympic Committee and a few corporate houses.

The academy also announced that it has reached an agreement with the Centre for Media Research for training and with the All Nepal Football Association for training programmes in the seven provinces of the country.

Inactive sport associations will be scrapped

National Sports Council (NSC) member secretary Ramesh Kumar Silwal has warned that passive sports associations existing only in documents will be scrapped.

Referring to a news article published by the Post entitled 'Nepal barely plays 50 different sports, but hosts nearly 200 sports associations,' Silwal said it is indeed correct and the NSC would not spare such associations.

"Such associations which exist only for foreign visits, which do not produce coaches, players, do not have playing infrastructure and do not organise competitions are useless. It is better that such associations die rather than live," said Silwal at the Academy launching ceremony.

"As per the rule, sports associations need to submit their audit reports by mid-January, but many have not submitted them until now," he said, urging the associations to provide the details of income, expenses and bring out an action plan so that the NSC could support them. He also pledged support to the NSJF academy.

Minister for Youth and Sports Dawa said the Academy would be useful for qualitative growth of sports journalists and the ministry was ready to help.

Sports Ministry secretary Kedar Neupane pointed out that Nepal's sports journalism lacks analytical content and the academy would contribute to developing expertise. Nepal Olympic Committee president Jeevan Ram Shrestha said the Academy would benefit the whole Nepali sports sector.