(FMM/IFEX) – The following is a 30 November 2003 FMM press release: FMM welcomes proposal to set up an independent media council The Free Media Movement (FMM) welcomes the proposal to set up an Independent Media Council included in President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s proposal for political consensus. FMM has been campaigning for the greater democratization of […]
(FMM/IFEX) – The following is a 30 November 2003 FMM press release:
FMM welcomes proposal to set up an independent media council
The Free Media Movement (FMM) welcomes the proposal to set up an Independent Media Council included in President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s proposal for political consensus. FMM has been campaigning for the greater democratization of state media and views this set of proposals as a positive development in that direction.
In a statement released soon after the president took over the Ministry of Mass Communication, FMM urged the president and the government to take steps to transform state media into genuine public service media institutions. This request was reiterated and emphasized by two major international media and journalists’ organizations, the International Press Institute (IPI) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), in separate statements issued soon afterwards.
As an IFJ sponsored international conference on The Challenge of Public Broadcasting in Asia is taking place in Colombo from 1 to 3 December, this is an opportune time to take this proposal forward and engender wider dialogue aimed at creating consensus and implementation.
At the same time, FMM would like to point out that the recommendations of four committees appointed in 1995 by the People’s Alliance (PA) government, headed by President Kumaratunga, to look into necessary media reforms in Sri Lanka, still remain largely unimplemented. FMM requests that the president and the government revisit these recommendations to map out a comprehensive media reform package that is long overdue in Sri Lanka.
Finally, FMM strongly urges all political parties and democratic forces to consider the president’s proposals to democratize the state media as a positive development that should be encouraged and inform further discussions towards a more socially responsible media in Sri Lanka.
Sunanda Deshapriya
Spokesperson
FMM
