Media Minister tells US Ambassador:

US statement, involvement in Lankan affairs

Disna MUDALIGE

The American State Department’s statement recently is a direct involvement in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs as a sovereign nation, said Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. He expressed these views when American Ambassador Patricia Butenis called over at the Media Ministry yesterday.

“We consider all countries as friendly nations. But when the image of the country is affected through their comments, we have no hesitation to clarify our stand directly and unreservedly to them. It does not matter for us whether it is America or Maldives. The Government’s idea is that the international community should be more responsible when they comment in relation to our country,” he said.

Answering a question by a journalist on the recent statement made by the UK, Minister Rambukwella said it seemed some countries have more spare time to probe into internal matters of other countries.

The Minister said he could convince the American Ambassador that free access for journalists to IDP camps were not given at the early stage of the post war scenario, because the Government had to face many hardships in providing facilities for about 300,000 people even though they expected about 100,000 people to cross over.

“If the media were allowed to report everything, the people who dedicated and made enormous effort in liberating the country might be discouraged. In world history, it is for the first time that we handled such a large number of IDPs at once. We were highly successful in this task, and we could surprise the world by the extent we could do within less than a year,” he said.

The Minister said issues regarding media freedom, media institutions, media authority and future plans in terms of media development were discussed in a cordial manner at the meeting. The American Ambassador also made an offer for a media training program at this meeting. US Cultural Affairs Officer Glen S. Davis and Media Minister’s Secretary W B Ganegala also participated in the discussion.