The National Council Sub Committee on Identifying the Short & Medium-Term Programmes related to Economic Stabilization has been informed of the challenges in operating a media organization in the midst of the current economic crisis.
The observation was made during a meeting between main stream media journalists and the National Council Sub Committee on Identifying the Short & Medium-Term Programmes related to Economic Stabilization which was held today (15).
The Parliament of Sri Lanka said in a statement that the meeting was held to discuss the problems faced by the media organizations in the face of the economic crisis, related solutions, and proposals under the chairmanship of MP Patali Champika Ranawaka.
In the face of the economic crisis, it was revealed that the amount of money allocated for advertisements has decreased by approximately 70% due to the increase in the production costs of the companies.
It was also revealed that due to the power cuts during prime time, the number of commercials received by TV stations has decreased and in the current economy, they have to bear high costs for the production of programs.
Journalists pointed out that due to the increase in production costs including the shortage of paper, there has been a major setback in the publishing industry including newspapers. They also pointed out that because of this situation, the pages of the newspapers had to be limited and the prices increased. They further pointed out that due to the reduction of newspaper pages, there is no space for the news by the regional journalists and they have not even been able to make payments.
It was also revealed that it is difficult to even pay salaries to the permanent staff of some newspaper organizations. They also pointed out that in this situation newspaper printing has decreased by 60%-70%.
Thus, newspaper journalists pointed out that the circulation of newspapers among the people has been greatly reduced due to economic issues, non-publication of local news, etc.
In addition to the economic crisis, it was also revealed that the newspaper and radio have to face a big challenge due to the current digital media trends including social media.
It was further expressed that the government should make a joint effort to reach one goal by all media organizations to prepare the people to face the current crisis situation.
The Parliament of Sri Lanka statement further said attention was drawn here to the need to act in the same way that the media acted in times like the Tsunami disaster, defeating terrorism and overcoming the Covid crisis.
Responding to all these comments and suggestions, the committee chairman said that based on these facts, he is expected to include the proposals related to the media sector in the next report and submit them to the National Council. (NewsWire)
