Mass media of
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
consist of several different types of communications media:
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
,
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
,
newspapers
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
,
magazines, and
Web sites
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipe ...
. State and private media operators provide services in the main languages
Sinhala,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. The government owns two major TV stations, radio networks operated by the
Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), and newspaper titles in Sinhala, Tamil, and English.
After the growth of Sri Lankan economy, many satellite TV channels were introduced.
However, there are over a dozen privately owned radio stations and more than 30 privately operated television stations.
They often engage in political debates.
The use of the internet is a growing force within Sri Lanka, many of the newspapers now have online editions.
Because of the limited circulation for the daily and weekly newspapers, they are heavily dependent on advertising. As a result of this it is very rare to see Sri Lankan newspapers engage in investigative journalism or daring exposés of big business.
Press freedom
Press freedom is a major concern in Sri Lanka. Both sides in the war make efforts to silence inconvenient reporters. Around 15 reporters received death threats from one faction or the other in 2004 The assassinated reporter
Aiyathurai Nadesan, correspondent in Batticaloa for several Tamil media stated just prior to his assassination in 2005:
We are caught between a rock and a hard place. It is very difficult for us to check reports either with the security forces or the Tamil Tigers. And when a news item on local events is datelined Colombo, it puts us at risk of reprisals on the ground.
In 2005, the Tamil newspaper
Thinakkural
''Thinakkural'' is a Tamil newspaper published in Sri Lanka. It was founded by Pon Rajagobal, former editor of Virakesari in 1997. There have reported number of attempts to force the paper to stop its distribution in recent times.
See also
*List o ...
was threatened by
Karuna
Karuna may refer to:
*Karuṇā, part of the spiritual path in Buddhism and Jainism.
*Karuna Kodithuwakku (born 1961), Sri Lankan politician
*Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (born 1966), also known as Colonel Karuna
*Karuna, Finland, former municipal ...
. Copies of the newspaper were burned in the Eastern provinces.
On the other hand, distribution of the Tamil weekly
Thinamurasu is blocked by the LTTE because it is close to another armed group, the
EPDP.
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
stopped its broadcast in Sinhalese and Tamil for fear of reprisal against its reporters.
During the
Rajapaksa administration, press freedom in Sri Lanka became the "worst in any democratic country", according to the
Reporters without borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
index, ranking 165th among 173 countries in the index.
On 21 November 2008, a twelve-member group of masked men, forcibly entered the printing press of Sunday Leader, Morning Leader and Irudina Sinhala weekly and set fire damaging printing machines and copies of newspapers printed ready for distribution.
The state jammed transmission of BBC programs which contained content the government disliked.
The main private TV network
Sirasa was repeatedly threatened by minister
Mervyn Silva, attacked by a petrol bomb on 2.1.2009 and raided by gunmen on 6.1.2009, who set on fire the main control room.
This was in response to
SLBC criticizing Sirasa's coverage of the
capture of Kilinochchi.
According to the head of the company,
Chevaan Daniel
Chevaan Devavarathan Daniel (born 11 May 1978) is a Sri Lankan former TV news anchor. He founded one of Sri Lanka's pioneering tech start-ups in the late 1990s. Today, he sits on the board of the Capital Maharaja Organization, one of Sri Lanka's l ...
: "It's either that the citizens of Sri Lanka are able to drive around attacking institutions armed with weapons and grenades, or there is a hand behind it."
Lasantha Wickrematunge, the chief editor of the English Weekly
Sunday Leader
''The Sunday Leader'' was an English-language Sri Lankan weekly newspaper published by Leader Publications (Private) Limited. It was founded in 1994 and is published from Colombo. Its sister newspapers are the '' Iruresa'' ('' Irudina'') and the ...
and Sri Lanka's most influential journalist, was assassinated on the Thursday January 8, 2009 by unknown gunmen. The newspaper and its editor as well as the editor of Morning Leader have been harassed and threatened continuously during the preceding three years. All Leader publications are very critical towards the government and exponents of opposition political views. According to Reporters without Borders, the Rajapaksa administration blocks investigations into the murder of journalists.
Defence minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa threatened to chase Chris Morris, a BBC journalists, out of the country, if he does not act responsibly.
Local reporters in the country continue to be threatened, as was the case with 54-year-old M.I. Rahmathulla, who was beaten in April 2009 for reporting on political corruption in the Batticaloa region of Sri Lanka's Eastern Province.
Print media
Newspapers
Important English language newspapers are the
Sunday Leader
''The Sunday Leader'' was an English-language Sri Lankan weekly newspaper published by Leader Publications (Private) Limited. It was founded in 1994 and is published from Colombo. Its sister newspapers are the '' Iruresa'' ('' Irudina'') and the ...
''Daily FT'', ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'', the ''
Daily News'', ''
Sunday Observer'' and ''
The Island The Island(s) may refer to:
Places
* Any of various islands around the world, see the list of islands
* The Island (Cache County, Utah), an island on the Bear River, Utah
* The Island, Chennai, a river island in India
* The Island, Chicago, a n ...
''. Sinhalese newspapers are ''
Dinamina'', ''
Lankadeepa'', ''
Lakbima
Lakbima was a Sri Lankan private Sinhala language newspaper which was owned by the Sumathi News Papers Limited. Chairmen of the organization is Mileena Sumathipala, wife of the late D.W. Sumathipala. The English version of this newspaper was calle ...
'', and ''
Divaina''. Tamil newspapers are ''
Uthayan
''Uthayan'' ( ta, உதயன் Utayaṉ, en, Morning) is a Tamil language Sri Lankan daily newspaper published by New Uthayan Publication (Private) Limited, part of the Uthayan Group of Newspapers. It was founded in 1985 and is published from ...
'', '
Tamil Mirror'' ''
Thinakaran'', ''
Thinakkural
''Thinakkural'' is a Tamil newspaper published in Sri Lanka. It was founded by Pon Rajagobal, former editor of Virakesari in 1997. There have reported number of attempts to force the paper to stop its distribution in recent times.
See also
*List o ...
'', ''
Sudar Oli
''Sudar Oli'' ( ta, சுடர் ஒளி Cuṭar Oḷi) is a Tamil language Sri Lankan daily newspaper published by Mass Media Syndicate (Private) Limited, part of the Uthayan Group of Newspapers. It was founded in 2000 and is published from ...
'', ''Metro'' and ''
Virakesari''.
Magazines and other periodicals
Magazines such as
LMD (magazine)
''LMD'', formerly known as ''Lanka Monthly Digest'', is an English language Sri Lankan business magazine. The magazine is owned by Media Services (Pvt) Ltd and was first issued in August 1994. The magazine is available in print and online versions. ...
,
Hi!! Magazine,
Satyn (magazine),
Siriththiran, and
Athuru Mithuru.
Magazines published in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
Magazines
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
Broadcasting
Radio
Radio broadcasting in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
dates back to 1923. Radio broadcasting, like other forms of media in the country, is generally divided along linguistic lines with state and private media operators providing services in
Sinhala,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
, and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
language.
Television
The first
Television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...
of
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
was launched on 13 April 1979. The
ITN channel
Independent Television Network Ltd ( si, ස්වාධීන රූපවාහිනී මාධ්ය ජාලය; ta, சுயாதீன தொலைக்காட்சி ஊடக வளையமைப்பு) also known a ...
, owned by the
(ITN) became the first terrestrial television channel of Sri Lanka.
[''ITN Sri Lanka'']
About Us
On June 5, 1979 ITN was converted to a government owned business
and was later brought under the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Act of 1982 along with the newly created
Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation
The Sri Lanka Rūpavāhinī Corporation ( si, ශ්රී ලංකා රූපවාහිනී සංස්ථාව; ta, இலங்கை ரூபவாகினி கூட்டுத்தாபனம்), also known as Jathika R ...
(SLRC).
[''Press reference'']
SRI LANKA Press, Media, TV, Radio, Newspapers
/ref>
Significant changes occurred in 1992 as the government permitted the establishment of private television networks. Subsequently, the Maharaja Television Network (MTV) was launched in collaboration with Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel).
Since then many new television networks have come into existence within Sri Lanka. There are also a number of Satellite networks and pay per view television networks in Sri Lanka such as Dialog TV which boasts over one million subscribers in the country. The national telecommunications provider Sri Lanka Telecom also launched an IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...
service in 2008.
Film
Sri Lankan cinema is a fledgling industry that has struggled to find a footing since its inauguration in 1947. Sri Lankan films are usually made in the Sinhalese language, the language of the majority Sinhala people.
In the first nine years most films were made in South India and followed the conventions of Indian cinema. Studio shooting was the norm, with Indian style sets erected in film studios. Even though it is popularly held that ''Rekava
''Rekava'' (Sinhala for "Line of Destiny") is a 1956 film based on village life and mythical beliefs in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). It is the first Sinhala film fully shot in Ceylon and was film shot outdoors in the country. It was also the first ...
'', made in 1956 by pioneer director Lester James Peries, was the first Sinhala film to be shot completely out of studio, it was really the film "Gambada Sundari", made in 1950 which was the first film shot outside studios. It was also the first Sri Lankan film where, like in "Rekawa", the dialog was recorded on the spot. This was because the film was shot on 16mm, using an Auricon sound-on-film camera which recorded the sound on the 16mm film optically, unlike in the case of where the sound was recorded on a Kinevox 35mm magnetic recorder. The film was later 'blown-up' to 35mm and was screened in Colombo in 1950.
Though "Rekawa" was acclaimed by local and international critics, the film failed to find an audience in the country and was a box office failure. Films continued to follow formulaic storylines borrowed from India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
up through the early 60s despite such efforts as ''Sandesaya
''Sandesaya'' (Sinhalese language word meaning ''The Message'') is a 1960 film. The film based on the war between the Sinhalese people and the Portuguese invaders in Sri Lanka. It was directed by Sri Lankan film director Lester James Peries. It w ...
'' and ''Kurulu Bedda
Kurulu Bedda is a 1961 Sri Lankan drama directed by L. S. Ramachandran and written by P. K. D. Seneviratne. It attempted to follow in the precedent set by ''Rekava'' and create a truly Sinhala film.
Plot
The story takes place in a small Sri Lank ...
''.
Artists such as Tissa Abeysekara, Dr. D.B.Nihalsingha, Prasanna Vithanage
Udaya Prasanna Vithanage ( si, ප්රසන්න විතානගේ) (born 14 March 1962) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. He is considered one of the pioneers of the third generation of the Sri Lankan cinema. He has directed eight feature ...
and Vimukthi Jayasundara
Kala Keerthi Vimukthi Jayasundara ( si, විමුක්ති ජයසුන්දර) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker, critic and a visual artist. Jayasundara is the first Sri Lankan to win the Caméra d'Or, in 2005.
Life and career
Vimukthi Jay ...
have attempted to breathe new life into the industry. Nihalsingha was an accomplished cinematographer as well as an editor: so his films has an input which was special and brought a viewpoint to all his films, most of which focused on the exploited women.
Vithanage's film ''Purahanda Kaluwara
''Purahanda Kaluwara (Death on a Full Moon Day)'' ( si, පුරහඳ කළුවර, italic=yes) is a 2001 Sri Lankan Sinhala drama film directed and produced by Prasanna Vithanage. It stars Joe Abeywickrama and Priyanka Samaraweera in lead ...
'' is widely considered one of the best movies made in Sri Lanka as is Jayasundara's ''Sulanga Enu Pinisa
''The Forsaken Land (Sulanga Enu Pinisa)'' ( si, සුළඟ එනු පිණිස) is a 2005 Sri Lankan drama film directed by Vimukthi Jayasundara and co-produced by Phillip Amril and Francisco Vilolobos. It stars Kaushalya Fernando and M ...
'' which won the coveted ''Camera d'Or'' for best first film at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
.
In recent years, films have begun to tackle gritty subjects such as family relationships, abortion and results of the conflict between the military and Tamil Tiger
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
rebels in the north. Director Asoka Handagama
Asoka Handagama (born December 1962) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. He obtained his primary and secondary schooling in a provincial school and went on to study Mathematics at the University of Kelaniya where he was awarded a first class honours de ...
especially has drawn criticism for pursuing such material in his work.
Internet
Numerous websites covering a wide range of topics, in addition to news and current affairs, exist. While all major newspapers have a web presence, many Sri Lankans turn to independent web publishers for their digital media needs. Some of these include the likes o
Roar Media
Economy Next
an
ReadMe Sri Lanka
See also
* List of Sri Lankan broadcasters
This list of Sri Lankan broadcasters includes notable broadcasters from the country of Sri Lanka.
A
*Chitrananda Abeysekera
*Karunaratne Abeysekera
B
* K. S. Balachandran
* Leon Belleth
*Nihal Bhareti
* Jimmy Bharucha
C
*Vernon Corea
*Vij ...
* List of newspapers in Sri Lanka
* List of television networks in Sri Lanka
Television in Sri Lanka dates back to 1979. Television broadcasting, like other forms of media in the country, is generally divided along linguistic lines with state and private media operators providing services in Sinhala, Tamil, and English la ...
* List of radio networks in Sri Lanka
Radio broadcasting in Sri Lanka dates to 1923. Radio broadcasting, like other forms of media in Sri Lanka, is generally divided along linguistic lines with state and private media operators providing services in Sinhala, Tamil, and English langua ...
* Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation
References
External links
List of Tamil Online Radio
* ttp://www.lankamission.org The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva br>Sri Lanka University News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Media Of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...