Transport Minister Bimal Rathnayake called for more responsible media reporting, citing a newspaper article about a fatal accident in Doluwa that killed three women.
Speaking in Parliament, Rathnayake said while newspapers provide a valuable public service, the report in question unnecessarily highlighted the driver’s gender.
“There is no issue with the reporting of the accident itself. But the report also says that the female driver had stepped on the accelerator instead of the brakes,” the Minister said quoting the newspaper report.
“I’d like to point that this didn’t happen because the driver was a female. This happens to drivers. At a time when we are trying to recruit females to this industry, we urge the media to report such incidents using the term ‘driver’—not female driver or male driver—because such distinctions carry a different insult,” he said. (Newswire)
