The National Media Policy will be launched and will come into effect within three months, Mass Media and Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa informed Parliament yesterday.

The Minister said that this National Media Policy will be formulated by key media stakeholders themselves through proper discussions to arrive at common consensus with the Government and that the Government will only be playing a facilitator’s role throughout the process.

He said that if any media institution does not comply with the common media law of the country, such media institutions will be dealt with according to prevailing media laws of the country. The Minister emphasised that the Government’s objective is to not impose rules on the media but to allow them to operate freely and ethically according to the country’s existing common media law.

He said that the Government hopes that the media institutions and media journalists will operate and work ethically within a highly competitive media environment in the country, abiding by the country’s laws on media.

“The government’s attention has been drawn in preparing a code of ethics for media journalists and currently the Ministry is in the process of drafting a code of ethics for media journalists.”

Responding to a question raised by NPP MP Prof. Sena Nanayakkara yesterday (8), the Minister said that presently there are 23 Sri Lankan television channels that are broadcast in Sri Lanka with five state television channels and 18 private television channels.

The Minister said the Government’s special attention has been also drawn towards enhancing the quality of the TV programmes that are broadcast by state and private sector TV channels and an action plan will be set up towards achieving this objective for the benefit of the viewers across the country.