The government seems to have opened up a new battlefront with media with attempts to curtail advertising of state institutions in main stream media institutions while introducing new laws against social media.
Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundara hit the media with a first foul and deadly blow ordering all state institutions and SOEs to immediately suspend their ongoing advertising campaigns.
It is still not clear whether the move is aimed at cutting down expenses in the state sector or an attempt to regulate government in advertising in line with the recent Cabinet decision to allocate 25% of advertising budgets of state-owned entities to state media institutions.
Allocating 25% of government advertising budgets to state-owned media stations is part of the government’s strategy to make the companies less reliant on the Treasury.
The government’s decision to suspend advertising will deal a severe blow to the country’s media industry in general.
Except for a few private media companies run by close allies of the government, other media institutions are struggling, as advertising revenue has sharply dropped in the face of the raging pandemic
Meanwhile media rights activists have expressed concern over a proposed Singapore-style regulatory framework for Sri Lankan websites purportedly to combat fake news and hate speech online.
Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told a Ministerial Consultative Committee on Mass Media last Saturday (21) that the proposed mechanism will be introduced in two weeks.
The committee has reportedly studied Singapore’s controversial Infocomm Media Development Authority Act (IMDA) and Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), which critics say will be emulated by Sri Lanka’s proposed regulatory framework in its mandate to curb reporting and content that spread falsehoods and incite racism
(LIN)