Media at the mercy of those controlling them - Wijedasa Rajapakshe

The media did not have the courage to run the news about milk powder imported from New Zealand being poisonous, UNP Colombo District MP Wijedasa Rajapakshe told Parliament yesterday.Participating in the debate, on regulations under the Sri Lanka Press Council Law, the MP said that the Agriculture Minister had recently said in Parliament that milk powder imported from New Zealand was not suitable for human consumption.
"The minister had the courage to expose it in Parliament. But most of the media organizations did not highlight this," MP Rajapakshe said.

"When I inquired from some media heads, they said they received advertisements from milk powder companies, therefore they cannot publish news detrimental to their advertisers. One media head told me his company received Rs. 20 million from such companies a year while another said his paper had received Rs. 10 million a year. They think if they receive such amounts they have to look the other way, while generations of children are in danger. That is the ethical conduct of media today. I call upon the minister of media to bring about laws to prevent such situations," Rajapakshe said.

He said the Sri Lanka Press Council Law was controversial, right from its beginning. He had functioned as the Chairman of the council for some four years. There were provisions to take action against media personnel who violate the law. When the UNP came to power in 2002, those draconian laws had been annulled. Had those laws been existent today, the journalists would have been suppressed by making use of them. Even some of those in the press gallery would have been in Welikada jail.

Rajapakshe said that there was no independent media today. Electronic and print media had political agendas. Most of the media organizations were run by politicians. The government gave permits to their friends only. There were government controlled media organizations. Therefore, they had a serious question about media independence.