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NEW DELHI: King Gyanendra's statement in Nepalese before Prince Dipendra died that there had been a "sudden discharge from an automatic weapon" was translated as an "accidental discharge" by the foreign media, giving rise to much controversy.

Seeking to clear the air on many aspects related to media coverage of the Nepal royal family massacre, noted Nepal political commentator Kanak Mani Dixit on Wednesday said the misreportage of the then Nepal regent's words was just one example of matters that compounded an already tense situation in the Himalayan kingdom.

Newspapers and television channels had quoted Prince Gyanendra as saying that the tragedy occurred when an automatic rifle went off "accidentally", further interpreted as a cover-up. Dixit said the actual words in Nepali translated to a "sudden discharge".

Speaking at a discussion organised by the Indian Women's Press Corps here, Dixit, also editor of the periodical Himaal, said with a blackout of official information, the foreign press, especially the Indian media to which Nepal is sensitive, had descended on Kathmandu streets and the subsequent coverage had fed existing anti-India feelings.

The coverage he felt, could have been more sensitive to the Nepalese people in a moment of crisis. Nepal, he said, had been much ignored by Indian media at large, with the Maoist insurgency which had left about 1,700 people dead finding scarce mention.

It was a "society without the medium of a colonised elite to give modern direction" and deserved more interest from outside media than it had got, Dixit said.

A nascent and weak Nepalese media, he said had been totally out of its depth and a confused and information-starved nation had depended on media like sattelite television for its information. He recounted an incident where a man downing shutters said he was doing so because an Indian television channel had said there could be riots. That from a question on whether there was the possiblity of riots.

The Times of India Executive Managing Editor Dileep Padgaonkar said in a crisis-driven media, even Indian states were not in the news for months. The one individual, he said, who had not received sensitive coverage in the entire matter was Devyani Rana. "The manner in which she was described, the captions under some photographs were shocking", he said.

He said the depth of feelings was understandable, this was the first time ordinary people spoke about foibles of the royals.

Padgaonkar also condemned the arrest of Yubraj Ghimre and his colleagues at Nepalese newspaper Kantipur, at the same time saying no legitimate government could, however, tolerate an article that called on the Army to revolt.

Others who recounted their experinces in Nepal were Washington Post chief of South Asia bureau Pamela Constable and Arnab Goswami of NDTV, who countered Dixit by saying television channels had in fact done a service to the people of Nepal who had no information. "We did not provoke riots", he stated categorically.

Defending the coverage, Goswami said "the whodunnit angle was the only one that made a story."

Wrapping up, Padgaonkar said the real big story now was how quickly Nepal struck the balance between monarchy and democracy and how soon insurgency could be beaten back.

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