( October 19,
2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Media Reform Lanka Initiative based at
the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at London University on Thursday October
11th 2012 launched its website http://www.mediareformlanka.comwhich aims to
broaden and inform the perspectives in which media law, media policy and
regulation are debated and determined in Sri Lanka and the wider South Asian
region.
The Initiative
is headed by Colombo based senior legal advocate and media columnist Kishali
Pinto-Jayawardena in association with Dr David Page and Dr William Crawley,
Senior Fellows at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, and Co-Directors of
the Media South Asia Project. (www.mediasouthasia.org).
The work has
generated two core papers on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility in Sri
Lanka: A Review of the Legal, Institutional and Educational Framework Relating
to the Print Media (co-authored by Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena & Gehan
Gunetilleke) and on the Political Economy of the Electronic Media (co-authored
by the late Tilak Jayaratne and Sarath Kellapotha). Advance versions of both
core papers were published in the LST Review, Volume 22, Issue 291 292, January
and February 2012/Issue 293 and 294, March & April 2012. Comparative
writings on Indian Media Law and Policy were published in the LST Review Issue 295,
May 2012. The research product encompasses a comprehensive analysis of media
reform in reference to the print and electronic media, supported by key
interviews with editors, journalists, teachers and administrators involved in
Sri Lanka’s educational and self regulatory bodies in regard to the media.
The Initiative
has also commissioned new writing on Media, Policy and Law in Sri Lanka from a
number of experts and practitioners, including senior editor Sinha Ratnatunga,
senior journalists Amal Jayasinghe, Ameen Izzadeen and Namini Wijedasa,
academic Professor Sasanka Perera, Dr Jayantha de Almeida Guneratne, PC and
columnist cum blogger Nalaka Gunawardene. These writings will be published
later in an edited publication by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.
The Sinhala
translation of the two core papers will be available shortly at leading
bookshops in the country. It is dedicated to the memory of veteran broadcaster,
the late Tilak Jayaratne.
