The Free Media Movement (FMM) yesterday expressed regret over the government’s decision to appoint a Board of Directors to the Sri Lanka Press Council. The FMM said that this decision is against one of the election promises of the present government.
Following is the text of the statement from the FMM:
Without considering the continuous appeal made by many media organisations in Sri Lanka, including the Free Media Movement (FMM), to abolish the Sri Lanka Press Council, President Maithripala Sirisena has decided to appoint a Board of Directors to activate the Sri Lanka Press Council Act and the FMM thoroughly condemns this action.
The FMM believes this decision as acting against one of the election promises of the present President by which he confirmed media freedom. One of the main agreements to which the FMM and many civil society organisations arrived at with the present President during the election was the abolishment of the Sri Lanka Press Council.
Besides this, the Free Media Movement handed over a set of proposals including the abolishing of the Sri Lanka Press Council to the President. The steps taken by the President can be seen as breaking an agreement made by President Maithripala Sirisena on his part.
As in the past, we promise we would continuously make society aware and activate a media voice about the inappropriateness, inapplicability and backwardness of the Sri Lanka Press Council and struggle against it until it is abolished.
Therefore, as this incident indicates the necessity of a broad media reform with media responsibility and media freedom, we request the media community in Sri Lanka and all those who love democracy to aggregate and fight against the establishment of the Press Council Act.
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