“Ada Derana” has emerged as one of the country’s leading new networks in its six years of operation and has been in the forefront of introducing many novel and innovative aspects to how news is disseminated via the electronic media.
Having started out in 2006 by disseminating news via television channel, now it has its own news web site, radio news as well as SMS news alerts.According to Director - News and Current Affairs of Ada Derana, Shehan Baranage, what makes their television news different from other channels is that they give their viewers the news as it is without making any additions.
‘There are channels that give ‘rasa katha’, others that give ‘guna katha’ and others that give ‘kata katha” but we give only the news without any additions,” Baranage explained. Some of the stations popular programs include “360” in which a one to one interview is done with a political personality while the other political talk show “vadapitiya” bring together four political personalities for intense debate on current topics.“Unlike in the print media where people can express their opinions via columns, on television we have to deal with the subjects more delicate. Hence I have introduced a programme called “Black and white” in which we get two presenters together to discuss the behind the scenes happenings on a current topic,” he said.
Made of a team of around 70 journalists, most of them multi task reporting for television, radio and the web while also providing news for prompt updates o on SMS.“We have our news web sites in English, Sinhala and Tamil while the SMS alerts are sent in all these languages as well as in “Singlish”.Baranage who has worked with four other television stations before joining Ada Derana says that he appreciates the free hand he has been given to work in the institution. “We have earned a reputation as dependable and credible news organization. We are very proud of that,” he added.He said the Chairman of “Derana’ Laksiri Wickremage and Chief operating officer (COO) Madawa Madawela have ensured that the news team is given a free hand to work in the news room with minimal interference. |
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