ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers has approved a proposal to establish a broadcast authority with a view to fostering a better and more sophisticated media culture, cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.
The minister told reporters at the weekly cabinet press briefing on Friday September 23 that approval was given to appoint a cabinet subcommittee to hold discussions with media representatives and other stakeholders.
Once established, the constitutional body will be tasked with laying the groundwork for a new media culture that is in keeping with international standards, he said.
Criticising the move, Sri Lanka’s former Human Rights Commissioner Ambika Sathkunanathan tweeted Friday afternoon that it was possibly a response to the government’s inability to control the narrative.
Translation:
We are enraged we aren’t able to intimidate and control how the media reports. So let’s try, once again, to weaponize the law, employ usual tropes of sovereignty, concern for the country and for the rights of the people etc to crush media freedom and dissent. https://t.co/UFbhG7m0jS
— Ambika Satkunanathan (@ambikasat) September 23, 2022
(Colombo/Sep23/2022)