Regulate Industry but not media freedom
View(s):- Dr Rohantha Athukorala
The latest move by the Government of Sri Lanka to constrain the media freedom with the launch of the ‘ Broadcast Authority Bill’ was debated fiercely by a eminent panel of experts on ‘ Face the Nation’ media evening media programme.
Business personality Dr Rohantha Athukorala a Former Chairman of Sri Lanka Export Development Board( EDB) and Sri Lanka Tourism voiced that whilst regulations can benefit the management of the media Industry given that 18 TV stations, 24 radio stations and 16 Newspaper brands are fighting for a share of voice( SOV) in a small twenty one million population of Sri Lanka, the authorities must not constraint media freedom he said. If we are to bring credibility to brand Sri Lanka and get connected to the world we must showcase the voice of the people. Or in other words a truth well told must be the culture we must create for a post economic crisis country like Sri Lanka.
Apparently the 2022 rack rate spend on media was around 161 billion Sri Lankan rupees. Hence, by regulating media we must see how we can reduce the entrenched competition among media stations that can avoid the result of major deviations on the reporting of facts opinioned Athukorala.
However, the general consensus among the eminent panelist was that the proposed Bill for Regulating media needs a new and fresh approach and the currently proposed edition fall well short of the expectations and the objectives it has specified.
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