Govt. intimidates media by pulling out advertising – SJB MP

The Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration was trying to intimidate media institutions by threatening to pull out government advertisements, SJB MP Manusha Nanayakkara yesterday told Parliament.

Tabling a circular issued by Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, the Secretary to the President on canceling advertisements given to media institutions, the SJB MP said it was an attempt to undermine the independence of the media. Nanayakkara said that advertisements were a major source of revenue for media institutions and that around 40% of the revenue media earned across the world come from government advertisements.

“Now government ads only go to media that toe the government line. Or, they go to state owned media institutions. I urge the government to introduce a mechanism to ensure government advertisements are distributed across all media institutions. This is important to ensure competitiveness in the industry. Some media institutions have other sources of income but not all of them have that luxury,” he told parliament.

Nanayakkara said that the government wanted to bring in laws to supress media institutions. Ideally the government must ensure the freedom of expression and the protection of journalists through legislation. “But the government is more interested in coming up with laws to punish independent media institutions and journalists. There must be a mechanism that encourages self regulation. Print media institutions themselves established the Press Institute and Press Complaints Commission as a self regulating mechanisms and these have worked. However the government wants to bring in institutions that act like the police.”

The SJB MP added that electronic media institutions too needed a self-regulatory mechanism. The previous government had drafted laws to establish such mechanisms but the current administration wanted to bring in laws to suppress web-based media by introducing new laws within two weeks,” Nanayakkara said.