Mahanayake thero says the state media behaviour might lead to breakdown of rule of law

The Most Venerable Thibbotuwawe Sri Sumangala thera of the Malwatte chapter in a letter has drawn president's special attention to state media which continued to act disregarding Supreme Court orders.

The Mahanayake thera is commenting on the non compliance of the recent Supreme Court order regarding the media coverage during the run up to the presidential elections.

A five-member bench chaired by the Chief Justice Asoka de Silva last Friday ordered the state and private media institutions to obey election commissioner's guidelines.

Supreme court order

The elections commissioner had to withdraw the competent authority, he appointed to oversee the conduct of the state media as they did not respect Commissioner's guidelines.

It is very rarely chief Buddhist prelates come out with such warnings to the head of state.

It is a requirement by law that "every citizen complies with the country's constitution which is the basic law of the country Malwatte Mahanayake thero

The Mahanayaka thera had earlier urged the president not to seek revenge from the dissidents and rejected accusations by the government that main opposition candidate, Gen Sarath Fonseka, is working on an agenda to divide the country.

The Mahanayake thera says that the court order was handed over to him by a group of over 100 lawyers on Wednesday.

The chief prelate reminds the president that it is a requirement by law that "every citizen complies with the country's constitution which is the basic law of the country".

Law and order

The no compliance of court orders, the Mahanayake thera warns, might lead to "actions and attitudes that are not conducive to the civil society."

President Rajapaksa and Gen Fonseka are the main opponents at the 26 January presidential elections.

Media campaign groups and monitors have accused the government of using public properties, including media, for its campaign.

JC Weliamuna, of the Programme for Protection of Public Resources told the BBC that the state media were ignoring guidelines from the electoral commissioner and were backing the president's candidacy "one hundred percent".

Secretary of Free Media Movement (FMM), Sunil Jayasekara, told BBC Sandeshaya that the behaviour of state media is "unethical" and “very biased” towards one side.