Newsprint for Jaffna papers soon

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa has assured newspaper publishers that all their problems will be solved shortly and printing material will be supplied to Jaffna.

The President made this assurance when he met Ranjith Wijewardene, the President of the Newspaper Publishers Association yesterday.

The President has requested Newspaper Publishers to be impartial and not to promote terrorism. Tamil newspapers published in Jaffna should provide information to the Tamil community and they can criticise the President and the Government but should not support and promote the LTTE, the President had stated during the meeting.

Due to the closure of A9 certain items including some printing material were not transported to Jaffna. Earlier newspapers such as Valampuri and Uthayan informed they were facing difficulties due to lack of printing materials and requested the Government to provide printing material.

Meanwhile Commissioner General, Essential Services, S.B. Divaratne said arrangements will be made to send selected printing materials in restricted amounts according to the monthly requirements presented by publishers.

“The publishers have to meet me and inform what their monthly requirements are,” he added.