Media ministry comes in for flak from president

(Lanka-e-News- 05.Aprol.2016, 6.40PM)  The performance of the ministry of media of the government of good governance has faced flak from the president Maithripala Sirisena who had expressed his displeasure  at the recent  cabinet meeting. The president had blamed the ministry for not duly disseminating news among  the public of the government’s path and policies. At that juncture , the prime minister (P.M.) by saying , a new system has been planned had saved the day for media minister. 

It is not only the view of the president, but even  the people for good governance are disillusioned that the media ministry is not active enough , and lagging behind.  

The reason for the president’s disappointment was , the failure of the information department to provide the information requested by the president. Recently when the president toured Polonnaruwa along with foreign diplomats, he requested the information department to provide him with a 15 mins. video footage covering the activities and progress made by the government during the past year . That was on a Thursday, and the following day  was a holiday (Friday). When the president called for the video footage on Monday , the information department has explained that as the weekend was a long holiday , and nobody worked, his request could not be complied with.

The information department has not only been unable to comply with a simple request of the president , but even tried to justify the lapse by adducing worthless answers . Based on these grounds aforementioned  , it is best if the department of information is closed down.

One of the undertakings given by the present government of good governance was : the bill that vests right to information in the public shall be passed. It is well te recall , when Karu Jayasuriya tabled this bill as a private members  bill before the last government , the Rajapakse government  rejected it.

It was media minister Gayantha Karunathileke the government chief whip who recently tabled this bill in parliament under the new government .It is the duty of the chief whip of the government to muster the parliamentarians, but on that day unfortunately there weren’t even 15 MPs of the government in parliament. In the least there wasn’t even an applause after the bill was not heard .Even via the media it was not publicised that the election promise was fulfilled. Truly speaking the media ministry should have conducted a huge campaign through distribution of  handbills and notices to inform the public . Nothing of that sort happened. When this bill was enacted in India , not only across  the whole of India even through the international media publicity was given triggering a controversy.  Sadly , those responsible could not fulfil  their obligations duly in SL in this regard. 

The president had to castigate the media ministry’s performance based on these and other lapses. 

Gayantha Karunatileke was appointed as  mass media minster  by the UNP , while the deputy minister , Karunaratne Paranavitharne  a newcomer  to politics was  appointed from  the president’s  side.

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by     (2016-04-05 13:17:49)