Celeberating one year in office with minister Mangala Samaraweera

The country needs to come out of continuing conflict said the President Mahinda Rajapakse on Tuesday. The president also expressed his views on media freedom in Sri Lanka.

“Restoring democracy to the people in the North and East is a matter of the highest priority for the Government,” the President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in a discussion with Media Heads and Editors of Private and State media institutions at “Temple Trees” on Tuesday.

Cabinet reshuffle

The President also told the journalists about an imminent cabinet reshuffle. But ruled out the speculations of snap elections in the coming months. He said, "There is no reason whatever for a general election at this stage."

Discussing the present security situation, The President said the Government is also fully committed to provide a political solution to the conflict in the North and East.

Media freedom

He assured them that the Government gave the highest importance to safeguarding media freedom, and there was no effort on the part of the Government to have policies to oppress or curb the media, "contrary to some opinions being built against the Government".

	Media workers protesting in Colombo after an abduction of a tamil journalist

In a recent report the International Federations of Journalists [IFJ] raised concerns about media freedom under President Rajapakse's government.

IFJ said the organisation is, "deeply concerned about the steady erosion of press freedom in Sri Lanka, following reports of the media being denied access to war zones, incidents of self-censorship and intimidation, and news journalists were forced to flee the country out of fear for their safety".

International concern

“The Sri Lankan media is increasingly struggling to operate freely and without fear in recent months, which is resulting in a significant decline in the number of independent voices in the country,” IFJ President Christopher Warren said.

In his discussion, the President urged the media persons present to avoid using the media in ways that would to endanger the defence of the state and national security, and to avoid causing religious and communal strife in the country.

In the present context the President made a special request to those in TV to act with responsibility in handling what was a very powerful media, so as not to inflame the feelings of people, but to help foster good relations and understanding among people.

New laws

According the Media heads present at the meeting, there were no discussions about the affects of the recently introduced anti- terroism laws on the media of the country.

In a recent report the Free Media Movement [FMM] reported, "the new anti-terrorism laws had been used to restrict freedom of expression. There are reports of arrests and the interrogation of journalists under these laws".

The new laws also encourage self-censorship says the FMM. "Leading investigative journalist Iqbal Athas reportedly admitted to censoring himself from writing critically on “security issues” in his column in The Sunday Times".