rapa
09-19-2006, 04:52 PM
"Koti Sirasa Gena Denaganna, Lanka Kiyawanna" (Read "Lanka" to know more about "Koti Sirasa") was a poster posted on almost every wall around the country. At the first time I saw it, I realized this is JVP's latest attempt to counter attack Sirasa TV's "Katussa" propaganda campaign.
A "cold war" is developing between "The Maharaja Organization Ltd" (TMOL) and JVP. We knew, for some time these two sides had been engaged in a "soft" propaganda battle, with JVP blaming TMOL as a "Pro LTTE" business entity and TMOL, using their media arm MBC Networks (Owning Sirasa, MTV, and Shakthi TV) to attack the leaders of JVP.
After their re-entrance to the main steam politics, JVP never had a good relationship with the electronic media of this country.
During last presidential election period, EAP Networks (Owning Swarnawahini) took a management decision to close all their gates to members of JVP (making it impossible for them to attend political talk shows at Swarnawahini), as a result a JVP MP criticizing the management of EAP Group at one talk show hosted on Swarnawahini. (I don't know how rational decision it was)
But, one good thing about EAP management was, they never influenced their news current affairs teams (Live @ 8, Deshapalana Sathiya, and the political talk shows etc) to use their programs as tools for bashing JVP leaders.
Even after that "management decision" of closing gates for JVP leaders at EAP networks, people behind Live @8 and Deshapalana Sathiya, maintained the quality of their programs without being "explicitly showing off" the political ideology of their capital investors.
But the story with TMOL is very different. Just like in the case of EAP Management Vs JVP issue during presidential elections, the whole country knows there's some "action" going on between TMOL and JVP these days.
And unlike the people at Swarnawahini, the people in TMOL media arm (Sirasa TV and MTV) are actively supporting their capital investors interests!
Every day, we see one or more "cut and chopped" video clip of a speech made by a JVP leader on Sirasa News. And these news items are not having any "news value" to the viewers at all (Every one knows JVP is promoting war. Nothing new). And Sirasa News' latest attempt is to create a break between the president and the JVP. (Example: the cut and chopped video clip of the speech made by Somawansha Amarasinghe, telecasted on yesterday 17th Sept)
In the mean time, JVP seems not giving up at all! They still don't have electronic media power (Heard they'll soon start their own TV channel) but trying to counter attack TMOL via their Sunday Newspaper "Lanka".
On yesterday's (17th Sept) edition of "Lanka" they've published an article titled "Koti Sirasa", which I personally view as a "counter attack" for Sirasa TV's famous "Katussa" campaign.
I couldn't read the full article yet (Hopefully this evening I'll be able to read it), but I saw the massive promotional campaign they give to it through posters (The favorite propaganda media of JVP).
All in all, as viewers of TV channels, as readers of News papers and as voters of political parties, we should be aware of these "under the scene" games played by TV Channels, News Papers, and political parties.
The viewers should be made aware of the political motivations behind TV news channels. Readers should be made aware, which political party funds which papers. By doing so, we could expect more "empowered" set of consumers of "news papers" and "TV channels" in this country.
I believe that's the only way possible to create a "free media" in this country. We can't expect media to be free from their owners in next 50 years. So, it's reasonable to expect "viewers & readers" to be aware of the political motivations of each TV channel and newspaper, so that their efforts to CREATE an artificial public opinion would be useless.
A "cold war" is developing between "The Maharaja Organization Ltd" (TMOL) and JVP. We knew, for some time these two sides had been engaged in a "soft" propaganda battle, with JVP blaming TMOL as a "Pro LTTE" business entity and TMOL, using their media arm MBC Networks (Owning Sirasa, MTV, and Shakthi TV) to attack the leaders of JVP.
After their re-entrance to the main steam politics, JVP never had a good relationship with the electronic media of this country.
During last presidential election period, EAP Networks (Owning Swarnawahini) took a management decision to close all their gates to members of JVP (making it impossible for them to attend political talk shows at Swarnawahini), as a result a JVP MP criticizing the management of EAP Group at one talk show hosted on Swarnawahini. (I don't know how rational decision it was)
But, one good thing about EAP management was, they never influenced their news current affairs teams (Live @ 8, Deshapalana Sathiya, and the political talk shows etc) to use their programs as tools for bashing JVP leaders.
Even after that "management decision" of closing gates for JVP leaders at EAP networks, people behind Live @8 and Deshapalana Sathiya, maintained the quality of their programs without being "explicitly showing off" the political ideology of their capital investors.
But the story with TMOL is very different. Just like in the case of EAP Management Vs JVP issue during presidential elections, the whole country knows there's some "action" going on between TMOL and JVP these days.
And unlike the people at Swarnawahini, the people in TMOL media arm (Sirasa TV and MTV) are actively supporting their capital investors interests!
Every day, we see one or more "cut and chopped" video clip of a speech made by a JVP leader on Sirasa News. And these news items are not having any "news value" to the viewers at all (Every one knows JVP is promoting war. Nothing new). And Sirasa News' latest attempt is to create a break between the president and the JVP. (Example: the cut and chopped video clip of the speech made by Somawansha Amarasinghe, telecasted on yesterday 17th Sept)
In the mean time, JVP seems not giving up at all! They still don't have electronic media power (Heard they'll soon start their own TV channel) but trying to counter attack TMOL via their Sunday Newspaper "Lanka".
On yesterday's (17th Sept) edition of "Lanka" they've published an article titled "Koti Sirasa", which I personally view as a "counter attack" for Sirasa TV's famous "Katussa" campaign.
I couldn't read the full article yet (Hopefully this evening I'll be able to read it), but I saw the massive promotional campaign they give to it through posters (The favorite propaganda media of JVP).
All in all, as viewers of TV channels, as readers of News papers and as voters of political parties, we should be aware of these "under the scene" games played by TV Channels, News Papers, and political parties.
The viewers should be made aware of the political motivations behind TV news channels. Readers should be made aware, which political party funds which papers. By doing so, we could expect more "empowered" set of consumers of "news papers" and "TV channels" in this country.
I believe that's the only way possible to create a "free media" in this country. We can't expect media to be free from their owners in next 50 years. So, it's reasonable to expect "viewers & readers" to be aware of the political motivations of each TV channel and newspaper, so that their efforts to CREATE an artificial public opinion would be useless.