The minister reiterated the fact that it was the need of the hour and high time to introduce it as many previous governments tried this during their tenure in the last couple of decades but had failed to go beyond several rounds of talks with the fraternity.
The media minister made these remarks when he sat down for a special discussion with the industry stakeholders and representatives of the local media associations and trade unions at the Ministry of Mass Media at Narahenpita.
During the meeting the progress of an already prepared draft paper of the national media policy was discussed but many media representatives expressed their dismay over it as most of the media organisations or associations had neither been invited nor involved in the drafting stage of the document.
The attention was also drawn towards setting up a chartered institute for the local mass media and to uplift the professionalism of the local media personnel as well as enhancing their professional standards.
Representatives from leading media organizations including Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), the Free Media Movement (FMM), Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Union (FMETU), The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, Young Journalists Association of Sri Lanka (YJASL), Sri Lanka Photo Journalists Association (SLPJA) and Sri Lanka Press Association (SLPA) were among the participants including the officials from Sri Lanka Press Council and Sri Lanka Press Institute.
