The present Government under leadership of H.E. the President has been maintaining cordial relations with Media irrespective of any political discrimination and a variety of programmes are being implemented by the Ministry of Mass Media and Information to create journalists equipped with higher professional competency. The Secretary to the Ministry pointed out that the Ministry of Mass Media and Information has been implementing programmes such as awarding educational scholarships for journalists, providing concessionary loans to purchase Media equipment, providing loans for journalists to purchase motor vehicles, training of regional media personnel and facilitating media personnel for easy access to gather and disseminate information. He expressed these views attending the workshop on “Empowering Regional Journalists for National Development” organized by the Sri Lankan branch of the South Asian Free Media Association as the Chief Guest.
National development could only be realized through regional development and the journalist should be the leader of the process of empowering the community to direct the country towards national development. The role played by the regional journalists in this endeavour is commendable. It is the regional journalist who identifies the regional development requirements and witnesses the transformation in the lives of the public through the realization of the requirements. However, the significance of development news in the national newspapers has been relatively decreased stated the Secretary while emphasizing on the importance of space for development news as well as constructive criticisms in national newspapers.
In the present era where the country has been directed towards an accelerated development path, the timely need for empowering the regional journalists is more significant than ever. The Secretary expressed that it is not the policy of the Government to neglect any journalist either at the regional or the national level and further added to his views that training programmes are being implemented aimed at the development of professional competency of the regional journalists and various other programmes are being implemented to facilitate the journalists.