Media Minister heads North-South exchange:

Building professional solidarity among journalists

By Uditha Kumarasinghe

'A mission to show solidarity with the journalists of the North,' was how Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media Minister Gayantha Karunathilaka described a government-supported delegation of journalists from the South of the country to Jaffna yesterday.

Minister Karunathilaka flags off the train. Pic: Media Ministry

Minister Karunathilaka told the Sunday Observer that it was the first time that such a mission of post-war professional solidarity is being undertaken with official government support.

In previous decades, as the war shattered the lives and professional work of journalists in the North and the East, there had been non-governmental solidarity missions to the North by concerned journalists of the South. The current mission is led by the Minister himself.

This gives it the authority needed to examine and begin redressing the needs and problems faced by journalists in the North as they continued to re-build their lives, their profession and their news industry in a newly reviving region now benefitting from a nationally led policy of reconciliation.

The program is titled Thalpathai Panhindai Ekata Ya Kerena Sanhindiyawe Charikawa.

Karunatilake said, "This is a concept initiated by me and my Deputy Minister Karunaratne Paranavithana in collaboration with various media organisations. We hope the media can play a vital role to promote national reconciliation in the country. The trend that prevailed earlier in the country was that journalists in the North were merely confined to reporting the incidents in the North while their counterparts in the South also did likewise. It is rare to find journalists who safeguarded the Sri Lankan identity." The media tour started from the Fort railway station yesterday at 6.35 am with two special compartments of theYal Devi train reserved for the journalists delegation.

The train also picked up journalists in Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya and Kilinochchi.

In Jaffna, the delegation met the Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, Northern Province Governor Reginald Cooray and religious leaders yesterday.

The journalists will today visit Nagadeepa, Nagapoosani temple, Jaffna library and Palali SLAF base. They will also visit four media institutions, Valampuri, Uthayan, Thinakkural and Dan TV. The media delegation will also meet the families of the journalists today while motorcycles will also be distributed among the Northern journalists under the program launched by the Media Ministry to provide motorcycles to journalists at concessionary prices. A contribution will also be made to the Jaffna library.

The Jaffna Press Club has also extended its fullest support to make this endeavor a success. The media delegation would return to Colombo by bus tomorrow (March 28).