Radio Suffers As Colombo Bosses Call The Shots

This article traces radio broadcast trends in Sri Lanka (formerly called Ceylon), an island nation with a population of 19 million. In the past, citizens listened loyally to the influential, state-owned Radio Ceylon. Its successor, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), faces a serious drop in listenership in the face of a "cacophony of privately-owned channels now crowd[ing] the airwaves...competing with each other to inform, entertain and sell consumer goods". Whereas the private channels present news in Sinhala, SLBC uses an archaic version of the language. Furthermore, the author notes, successive governments have used SLBC as a tool for political and state propaganda, broadcasting long speeches in full.

Yet, from the author's perspective, the biggest problem is that, while SLBC characterises itself as community radio, "listeners have no say in running the stations - these are managed by a tight bureaucracy in the capital Colombo, whose rigid guidelines control content: strictly no politics, and nothing remotely against the government in office."

Nor will SLBC take steps to enable community media to flourish. According to this article, 4 successive governments since 1992 have refused to grant broadcast license to non-profit, non-governmental, or cooperative groups. The author notes that politicians have granted licenses to relatives and business associates.

"Governments have never explained why community groups are not given broadcast licenses. Senior officials have sometimes cited fears of media misuse for 'anti-social' or political purposes. Strangely, such concerns don't seem to extend to profit-making companies, some of whose channels are openly aligned with political parties.

Click here for the full article on the Panos site.