MEDIA - The Biggest Challenge

by E.M.G. Edirisinghe

(January 27, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In reply to a query by the media, President Mahinda Rajapaksha is reported to have said‘jokingly’ that the biggest challenge for him was the media. However, it is not really a joke, but a fact.

For any government in power, the media is the biggest challenge, and not really the opposition as such. The moment a government fails or when the people are fed up of the same old faces preaching and commanding, who is in the opposition is immaterial for them. We know how Bernard Aluvihare was beaten by almost an alien to Matale - Nimal Karunatillake. It is what the media, I mean the impartial independent media, says that the majority of the people believe in. People think twice before believing in the government media, whether electronic or print.

People love to believe what is exposed in the media. So what the President said is not a ‘joke’, but something which he seriously believes in.