A Big Milestone

By  Dr. Rabin Man Shakya
Former Associate Editor,  The Rising Nepal
Former Lecturer of Journalism, Peoples Campus, RR Campus, TU.

It was March 10, 1989 inside a big auditorium in the Faculty of Journalism at the Moscow State University that I defended my PhD  in Journalism. The theme was "Nepalese Press: Political Orientation, Problems of Growth and Challenges." Since it was in the former Soviet Union, naturally I had to write and prepare the entire thesis in Russian.

With my first blog post, I would like to say: I will always be indebted to my scientific guide Prof. Dr. Ivan Ivanovich Sachenko who provided me necessary guidelines to carry out the project with the thesis. During my four year PhD tenure (1986-1989) in the former USSR, I went to Nepal two times in 1986 and 1987 where I stayed in Kathmandu for six months to gather materials for my thesis.

During my stay in Nepal, at that time, I had met with several Nepalese media luminaries. One of them was late Gopal Das Shrestha, editor of "The Commoner", one of the pioneering English language daily newspapers of Nepal, who had provided me with a lot of valuable information and suggestions.

March 10, 1989 was a very big event in my life. It turns out that I was the first Nepali person ever to defend the first PhD in Journalism having also completed and passed Masters in Journalism from the Byelorussian State University, Minsk in 1985.

A number of distinguished academic people  and students were present at the auditorium of the MSU during my presentation. Notable among them was Prof. Dr. Yassin Zassoursky, the then Dean of the Faculty of Journalism at the MSU.

I still remember Prof Dr Sachenko saying,"Not just any Ph D, Rabin, you have earned  a Ph D degree from the Faculty of Journalism of Russia's oldest and most prestigeous university - Moscow State University."

"This is a big milestone in your life", Prof Dr Sachenko had added.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Sachenko, Prof. Dr. Zassoursky, late Mr Gopal Das Shrestha and other senior media luminaries of Nepal in the first posting of my blog. I wish them sound health, long life, prosperity and more importantly, more creativity. With everything that I have learned since then, I wish to begin writing about my views on Nepalese media and current affairs. Thank you to all who have helped me along the way.



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**Shakya is also State Education Director, NRNA-USA Oregon Chapter, Portland, USA.