Media Standards Bill will not suppress media, but act as regulator: Paranawithana

The government yesterday, insisted that a new Media Standards Bill would not seek to suppress the freedom of the media, but would only act as a regulator to uphold standards, said Deputy Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government, Karunaratne Paranawithana.

Addressing a Cabinet media briefing, Paranawithana explained that there was no final draft on the Bill and the Cabinet Sub-Committee appointed to study the draft would consult the public and media institutions to recommend to the Cabinet what future action was needed to be taken with regard to the Bill.

“In a free market economy, the Government usually acts as the regulator but in a democracy, the government was unable to regulate the media. Thus there needs to be a machinery where all stakeholders could participate.

Paranawithana also denied reports that the Bill would force journalists to reveal their sources.

“It is a misunderstanding that the government is seeking to suppress the media. No one could force a journalist to reveal his/her sources. But in a criminal investigation or in instances of national security, the Police would have to get a Supreme Court order if they wanted a source to be revealed. Media has the rights but they are not absolute,” he said.

He further explained that if the industry was doing a good job with self-regulation in terms of standards and ethics, the government would not have to step in at such juncture. “Media institutions are so split, they are unable even to agree on basics. For the print media, we have, even with many shortcomings the Press Commission and the Press Complaints Commission. But with the electronic media, there is no regulatory body and the current regulatory mechanism is not sufficient to deal with complaints against them. Neither has any electronic media institution come forward to set any standard,” said the former Deputy Minister of Mass Media as he stressed the need to hold the media accountable for bad reporting and lack of ethical standards.

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