Media associations condemn govt. bid to ban TV programme

The Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions yesterday (22) strongly condemned what it called the ongoing attempts to abuse parliamentary privileges to ban TV programme ‘Televakiya’ and to intimidate its editor Lal Hemantha Mawalage attached to the ‘Siyatha’ Media Network.

The following is the statement issued by Dharmasiri Lankapeli, General Secretary of the grouping: “The Televakiya is a current affairs programme that has become immensely popular among TV audiences in recent times for its bold stance in criticising the wrongdoings of the government. In retaliation , the government is now trying to make use of the provisions in the Parliament Powers and Privileges Act to muzzle the media by summoning journalists before Parliament Privileges Committee to question and institute legal actions against them. This highhanded act tantamounts to a serious threat against the freedom of expression. Lal Hemantha Mawalage is a senior journalist who started his career in broadcasting at the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation.

Since the beginning of hids career at SLR C on Dec 28, 2008 he worked hard to stand against unjust and corruption. Because of his work, he had once come under a brutal attack launched by Mervyn Silva, a cabinet minister of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. Mawalage had to flee the country to save his life following the attack. Up until now, there is no formal investigation conducted by successive governmens to bring the culprits before justice. We urge President Ranil Wickremesinghe to immediately bring to a halt the suppression of the media and journalists and remind him and his government that it is their duty to bring justice to journalists who had been killed, maimed and become victims of enforced disappearances in the recent years. We, the Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions, emphasise that freedom of speech is a foundation of a democratic society, is a powerful value to social, economic, and political freedom.

The FMETU is a member organisation of the International Federation of Journalists is the world’s most powerful media organization with a membership of more than 600,000 journalists from 146 countries, and 167 media organidations, and we jointly urge the government to stop immediately the attempts to make use of powers to parliament to gag journalists. We also call on people’s representatives in Parliament to oppose the government’s plans to punish the ‘Siyatha’ Televakiya, which stands for the traditional characteristics of Public Service Journalism.