News First or News 1st is a Sri Lankan news organization owned by the Capital Maharaja Organization Ltd. News 1st primarily broadcasts news, live on three TV channels (

Sirasa TV Sirasa TV is a digital, terrestrial television network in Sri Lanka. It is the sister channel of ' TV One' (Previously MTV Channel and MTV Sports) which was established in 1992. Sirasa TV was started in 1998 as a sister to its radio network Sira ...

Shakthi TV In Hinduism, especially Shaktism (a theological tradition of Hinduism), Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. "Energy, ability, strength, effort, power, capability") is the primordial cosmic energy, female in aspect, and rep ...

, TV1, five radio channels (

Sirasa FM Sirasa FM is a Sinhala language radio station in Sri Lanka. MBC Networks, a subsidiary of Sri Lankan conglomerate Capital Maharaja Group, operate the radio station. It is one of the three successful radio stations started by MBC Networks in the 19 ...

Yes FM ' Yes 101 (100.8, 101.0 F.M.) is an English radio station in Sri Lanka. Yes FM principally plays contemporary hit music. Yes 101 commenced broadcasting on December 10, 1993, at 6.00 am. It is one of the radio channels owned by The Capital ...

Shakthi FM Shakthi FM is a Sri Lankan Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lank ...

, Y FM and Legends FM), three websites in Sinhala,

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 ...

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, nativ ...

languages, and social media platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter).

Programmes

Village Council (Gammedda)

News 1st initiated the “Gammedda” programme to invigorate the Village Council fora, by taking it to the masses and strengthening the fundamentals of democracy by instilling the ideal that the relevant authorities and highest echelons of government are directly responsible to the people.

Construction Clinic (Danamuthu Sayanaya)

News 1st, S-Lon Construction Clinic called Danamuthu Sayanaya is another initiative carried out with the participation of the renowned architects, builders, and engineers in the country. These professionals provide advice free of charge.

News 1st Classroom (Media Workshop)

News 1st Outreach reaches out to youth, to nurture them with media literacy and communication, and to make a better future through News 1st Classroom.

Dawasa Political Programme

Dawasa is a program which is focused on the current political situation in Sri Lanka where two expert journalists in the field of politics will share their views, along with News 1st presenter Roshan Watala. It expresses the comments, impressions and drawbacks faced by the general public on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

such as

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Recognition

A news documentary series telecasted on News 1st, based on International Water Day, was awarded the silver medal at the

United Nations Correspondents Association The United Nations Correspondents Association (U.N. Correspondents Association), or UNCA, was founded in New York City in 1948. It has over 250 members today. It presents the annual UNCA Excellence in Journalism Awards. The purpose of the awards ...

Awards (UNCA Award), which was held in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 2013. Director of English News Shameer Rasooldeen, and Executive Producer Zulfick Farzan of News 1st compiled the award-winning story. News 1st Digital is the official web news provider under the Capital Maharaja Organization umbrella in association with the Maharaja

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 ...

and

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

services. News 1st Digital launched its

website 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 Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

, newsfirst.lk in 2007. newsfirst.lk is Sri Lanka's first trilingual website and provides the latest news updates and

breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...

in English, Sinhala and Tamil for local, business, political, life style, entertainment and sports news. In August 2013, the newsfirst.lk English website was awarded a silver medal at the Bestweb.lk Awards. In August 2014, the English website was awarded another silver medal at the Bestweb.lk Awards and the bronze medal was awarded to the Tamil website.

Controversy

References

External links

*In English/Sinhala/Tamil
newsfirst.lk
{{Media of Sri Lanka MTV Channel Sri Lankan news websites Publications established in 2003