The President And Media Freedom
I read in the press with amazement about the President’s orders to the chairman of Teleshan Network to immediately stop the telecast of an interview of Susanthika Jayasinghe conducted by the late Lasantha Wickrematunge. I was equally stunned to read that the police had moved in and around the premises of TNL’s Bambalapitiya office putting pressure on them to bring the programme to a halt.
To put it mildly, I was aghast. What right does the President or any other person of the government have to interfere with the operation of a private TV channel? Is this the democracy and media freedom the PA government boasts of? It is bad enough that the present government is manipulating the state owned TV channels according to their whims and fancies and using it more than generously for their election propaganda, but to think of the President going to the extent of calling the head of a private TV channel to safeguard the interests of one of its crossover henchman is a sorry state of affairs. Had the henchman crossed over to the opposition like he did in the not too distant past, the roles would have been reversed. There would have been Presidential orders to telecast the same interview on all state owned TV channels!
Knowing the state of affairs in our beloved motherland, the chairman of the television station would have had little choice but to yield to the pressure put on him, however reluctant he may have been. By not complying he could have expected to be whizzed away in a white van the following day itself.
A humble request Mr. President. If you wish to win the upcoming election, please try and cultivate more media freedom and execute it to its fullest. We are fed up of your broken promises.
V.M. Jayaweera
Nawala
I am very sad nobody speaks about these topics,
MR and his brothers have tamed all the media institutions by hook or by crook. Some are said to be directly under their control others have been intimidated. This is the only country where Idiotic ministers have the freedom to enter even Government TV stations to threaten and assault administrators.
From the day he came to power, MR and his clan were determined to do the wrong thing in the fields of human rights, media freedom, rule of law and the like. I am not shocked that this happened as this is what one expects from this arrogant, racist and egoistic bunch of brothers and their cronies. The fact is that they are so drunk with power, they cant see the misery they are causing. Clearly they should be kicked out and everybody who values justice, honesty and fairplay should work towards this task. The people should not suffer any further by having another term under this wicked and cursed family who think that they own the country.
Well, said Mr. Mathew. You hit the nail on the head. The Rajapakse’s are a curse to this country and their regime should be eliminated once and for all, Al right thinking citizens do cast your vote coreectly on 26 Jan 2010. Don’t let our nation down.