Sri Lanka’s government today defended selective use of BBC programming on state radio stations. Yesterday the BBC said it would no longer provide FM radio programming to the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC).
SLBC Chairman Hudson Samarasinghe said he had received no formal notice of the suspension, which the BBC said would remain until its programmes were aired without what it called interference. But he said SLBC had the right to do as it wished after paying for programming from outside sources.
“This is the voice of the nation,” Samarasinghe told Reuters. “I don’t have the freedom to air the voice of Prabhakaran who wants to divide the country.” He was referring to BBC broadcasts in November that included Tamil Tigers leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran’s annual address, which state media are prohibited from broadcasting.
(Source: Reuters)
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on Feb 10th, 2009 at 19:34
I think that Sri Lanka has to tell more of the underlying reasons why, they are using selective BBC services on SLBC….