News segment a commercial free zone :

New look SLRC news

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) will relaunch their news reporting strategies on November 19. They will be giving a facelift to their trilingual news telecast by introducing the 'Entry towards the great tradition on news reporting' project.

This enables viewers to experience a contextual change in SLRC news. The news presenters have been trained overseas with special focus on pronunciation and presentation skills. The largest background used for a local news casting will be used for this purpose. The latest technological devices and five cameras will be functioning. The newscaster's outfits will also be changed. The motif behind SLRC news is 'responsible reporting'. The original theme music had also been rearranged.

The event will be launched to coincide with the inauguration of the second term of office of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

SLRC Chairman Sarath Kongahage said that the move was a timely need because the channel had lost its unique news identity in the past years.

"We have made some structural changes and revived past techniques. We also intend to make the news segment a commercial free zone," he said adding that the SLRC news bulletin will also be telecast on the sister channels, Netra and Channel Eye.

Mass Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that SLRC has a duty to perform as the State's Government channel. He noted that the shift is a challenging and demanding task.

SLRC will upgrade their program on reading news items published in national newspapers in the country. Titled 'Headlines', the program focuses on the headlines, cartoons, editorials, features, sports and foreign news in newspapers. It will be telecast from November 18 at 6.30 am to 6.55 am.

Channel Eye which recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary will also take on a new look with some locally produced programs being added to the channel's program schedule.