Naked media giants in Sri Lanka Part II


- Respected media personality, administrator and artist, Sunil Sarath Perera was kicked out of the chairmanship of SLBC by the Media Minister Anura Yapa and his nephew Charitha Herath (Charitha Saadu) in order to make way to a fellow media man the big mouth Hudson Samarasinghe .
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by Kumara Kaluarachchi

(July 12, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A former TNL (Janahanda) and Swarnavahini (Ratu Ira and Kinihira) political affairs commentator and producer Chandana Sooriyabandara became the organizer of Senkadagala electorate for UNP. Owner of Lakbima paper, Thilanga Sumathipala was elected as the UNP District organizer for Anuradhapura. From that day onward Lakbima is hell bent in promoting Thilanga Sumathipala as a politician! Media mogul, owner of the Wijaya publications which publish Sunday Times, Lankadeepa and Daily mirror, Ranjit Wijewardene’s son Ruwan was appointed as the UNP organizer for Biyagama. List goes on and on….Can one get unbiased political opinion from the above media???

Now lets see the behind the screen greedy self-help dramas of the media people. Sonali Samarasinghe’s saga is both hilarious and sad. She is attached to The Sunday Leader and a VERY influential media figure in Sri Lanka. After the victory of 2002 general elections, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe appointed Sonali as the counselor (information) of the Sri Lankan High Commission in Australia. This champion of media and the brave worrier who specialized in “exposing” corruption in our society took to her wings to play Diplomat role in Kanga Land!! Unfortunate Sonali had to pack her bags and come back to Colombo when CBK sacked Ranil in 2004!

Most media persons are not writing or producing any creative work. They get their “copies” from the respective people they are connected to. For example, if they are allied with UNP, they get their copy from Siri Kotha and if they are SLFP allied, they get their copies from their respective political leaders (as SLFP is not organized in media usage like UNP). What those respective media chaps do is just file the stories in their name and collect the fee from the media institute they attached to. Has someone ever wondered how the weekly political affairs page in Sinhala newspapers ( Wasala viththi in Rivira, Katha mada Katha in Lakbima etc..) are having identical paragraphs?

Defense writers get their copies from the rival officers of the forces and arms dealers who failed their tenders to supply arms to the Ministry of Defense. Time to time armature defense news geeks ridicule those well respected defense analysts for silly mistakes the make in identification of arms and aircrafts.

Not only they make shameless profits by writing stuff for their political masters, Sri Lankan journalists change their stories overnight to suit their political masters. Take for example the Sunday Leader. During CBK’s presidency, Sunday Leader was telling us that they have evidence to prove SB Dissanayake and CBK are plotting to kill the editors of Sunday Leader and Ravaya. When SB changed sides and joined UNP, Sunday leader stopped accusing SB. When CBK left the presidents office and joined Ranil and Mangala, Sunday leader has only the praises for CBK!

Most Media people go behind politicians to get the kickbacks. They get foreign trips, consultancies (it is said that Chatura Widayaratne was paid hefty sum for his “consultancies” at Rupawahini during 2002-2004 era) and other benefits. They obtain foreign scholarships for themselves and their loved ones from the politicos. Most importantly they replace their colleague and fellow Free Media man to get influential Government media jobs such as the editorships of Lakehouse and offices in Rupawahini and ITN. Media minions of Ranil’s political campaign were given plum jobs in state media. Nimal Laxupathiarachchi of Sirasa (wonder he has passed his OL!!) was given the free hand to run Rupawahini and other electronic media of the government. He introduced Prof Ganganath Dissanayake (without a PhD!) as the chairman of Rupawahini. Subsequent events of changing of news desk to show the legs of the female news anchors and such are legendary stories. Ranil’s political appointee in the name of Guyirika Perusinghe virtually ruined the ITN. Mahinda’s political appointee Sisira Kothalawala is doing his best to bury the dead body of Rupawahini! These are the media people we have in our country!

Respected administrator and an artist Sunil Sarath Perera was kicked out of the chairmanship of SLBC (which he was nourishing and gradually developing in to a healthy level from a ruined state) by Media Minister Anura Yapa and his nephew Charitha Herath (Charitha Saadu). The SLBC chairmanship was given to the big mouth Hudson Samarasinghe. Make no mistake, Hudda is also a PROMINENT media man in Sri Lanka!!!

CBK’s media advisor Sanath Gunathilake was a legend in corruption. Before CBK joined Ranil, the UNP friendly media were “exposing” Sanath’s connections with the murder of Rohana Kumara, the editor of Satana, which exposed the Channel 9 story. Rohana Kumara wrote a piece entitled “CommiSana” and apparently paid the price by his life. However the very brave media people who challenged both Sanath and CBK for the murder are now keeping mum, after the changes in the political chess board!

Sri Lankan media people are demonstrating against the Governments people elect. They demand subsided traveling and housing benefits from the very same governments and most importantly, get their demands. They believe that they are above the rest of the citizens of Sri Lanka. Usually the main opposition party is with the media demonstrators at any given time. When they gain power, the very politicians who intimidated Media men few years back come and join the demonstrations.

Ranil wickramasinghe and his political goons were demonstrating with FMM and other media men only few days ago. Yesterday (9th July) people of Sirikotha, Ranil’s party headquarters have manhandled three ITN journalists and handed them over to police. Today FMM has made a statement criticizing the actions of UNP goons at Sirikotha! When they hold a demonstration at Lipton circus criticizing this assault, will Ranil Wickamasinghe join the protest?

(The writer is a Editor of the Lanka Journal web site)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Unknown said...

Sunil Sarath Perera ran SLBC to bankruptcy. I don't understand how Sunil can be a part of the administrative service when he does not even have A\L. Sunil has some rivary with Hudson as he hounds him. Sunil go back to school and get some education before asking people to publish bogus qualifications about you or stick to your song writing as that is the only thing you can do successfully.