Another weekend has passed. Is the Supreme Court hearing of CBNSat tomorrow confirmed? We wonder how many of our fellow bloggers watched the "Rhythm of Life" programme on TNL TV on saturday. It was an informative programme and the opinions expressed were much stronger than in the previous Benchmark programme.
The important point was that the explanations were in English and Sinhala both. Enabling a larger cross section of the public to watch and understand the interview.
A new fresh revelation has been published in the newspapers about Mr. Tv Lanka. He is making better reading than our politicians these days. New and interesting revelations and too big to publish here. Those who did not get a copy of the paper please purchase one today as you will get it at some news stands.
An interesting letter was published in the Daily Mirror today regarding the closure of CBNSat and LBN with some interesting remarks.
We would like to urge our fellow bloggers to continue sending letters to the concerned authorities urging them to restore tranmissions.
Wonder how much hope we can have the on the Supreme Court hearing?
The important point was that the explanations were in English and Sinhala both. Enabling a larger cross section of the public to watch and understand the interview.
A new fresh revelation has been published in the newspapers about Mr. Tv Lanka. He is making better reading than our politicians these days. New and interesting revelations and too big to publish here. Those who did not get a copy of the paper please purchase one today as you will get it at some news stands.
An interesting letter was published in the Daily Mirror today regarding the closure of CBNSat and LBN with some interesting remarks.
We would like to urge our fellow bloggers to continue sending letters to the concerned authorities urging them to restore tranmissions.
Wonder how much hope we can have the on the Supreme Court hearing?
9 comments:
I hope we could have some hope for tomorrows hearing. The court will probably issue a temporary licence till the new regulations to be drafted.
But considering the bitter past who on earth can tell what will happen tomorrow ???? No one will know !!!!!!!!!!!
I hope the TV Lanka guy is becoming heavily exposed as a side result of this scene. Even yesterday there was a huge article on Sunday Leader.
He was supposed to have his Kangaroo Courts III program on Saturday night. But they have noted that it will not be telecasted giving freedom to the Sunday Leader editor to carryout his acts in a just way. (Now he's like the godfather of media. He shows whom to shut, whom to open and even giving freedom to other media)
Don't know what will be his next reaction.
But I beleive that better for him to keep quiet ! Otherwise he will be heavily exposed and will not be able to carry out his operations in a decent manner. He should know how to put his house in order before pointing the finger at others.
WISH CBN AND LBN ALL THE BEST TOMORROW !!!!!!
Hope it will be sorted out tomorrow till the regulations are drafted. Anyway, now it seems we are goinh to loose our local channels as well. Thanks for Mahinda Chinthana.
Banning of CBNsat/LBN and the foreign content tax on local televisions means the end of television as an entertainment medium. There need not be many big reasons for governments to fall. Cannot the intrusion and controlling of private lives of citizens be one? All empires fall.
We have seen many governments rise to power and then crash down. But I don’t think we have ever seen a government like this which tries to control lives of it's citizens. Pure dictatorship. But it's unfortunate to see that there is no rival to counter against govt. Even the main opposition is in disarray over power. The hunger for power has infected the brains of all politicians in Srilanka.
Don’t we have bigger troubles to worry about other than the entertainment industry (which at least helps tired minds relax)? Don’t we have to worry about the Ethnic conflict that’s rocking the country? The power crisis which threatens to darken the future of the country? The danger of foreign firms not investing in Srilanka because of various risks? The danger of being isolated from the rest of the world?
In the modern world, no country can stand on its own right. Not even America. True we need to protect our traditions and culture, but we gotta get a move on as well coz the times are always changin.
Good luck CBNsat on supreme court hearing tomorrow.
Sirasa speaks only when there exsistence is endangered. was there anything about CBNsat on News1st or actionTV or any of their news telecasts? NO. So much for the people's channel.
Sirasa doesnt have any respect from me any longer. Those guys are selfish. I feel sorry for ART and ETV though.
I was watching the local channels yesterday and noticed that most of the programs are missing. Etv- Friends, Art-Raymond, Derana- Action movie. I feel sorry for these channels b'cos they cannot survive without foreign entertainment programs. As for Sirasa they are still showing "Sirasa gon depaya". I think Sirasa is shitting on other channels as well. Hope CBN comes back today to end this crisis.
Govt. censorship through the backdoor, claims UNP
The UNP which expressed concern on the proposed levy on foreign TV programmes said the government had reintroduced TV censorship through the backdoor using the Finance Act.
It said it was only a matter of time for the government to extend it to radio programmes and the newspapers. The party said that under the Finance Act it would not be possible to telecast any programmes not exempted by the Media Ministry. Any exemption should be according to specific criteria laid down in the regulations. Any violation of the regulations had to be determined by the Revenue Authorities and Courts.
“This is nothing but censorship under a different name,” the UNP claimed.
“The reason given by the government is the need to develop the indigenous film and TV industry. While stressing the need to develop them, the party will support genuine efforts to do so. Since all TV stations have set apart a longer air time for local programmes, the industry needs help for quality improvement as well as for finance.
“This requires a development plan. But the government is yet to publicly announce any plans to develop the local industry. Therefore we believe that this is nothing but an excuse to impose censorship,” the UNP statement added.
Television has become a medium for the people to improve their knowledge of English. For many reasons it was not possible to produce good English programmes locally.
Therefore, charging a higher rate for dubbed programmes would affect a large group who have no other way of learning English. This would result in the increase of the gap between the urban and rural masses, the party stressed.
The UNP said this government move should be considered against the background of its refusal to implement the 17th Amendment to the Constitution and to bring back political pressure on vital areas of state administration.
“The attempt to impose censorship is another step in the suppression of basic rights, thus accelerating our progress along the path trod by failed states,” the UNP concluded.
New levy: TV channels to wait and see
By Yohan Perera
The Television Joint Industry Committee (TJIC) comprising several private TV channels adopted a ‘wait and see policy’ as President Rajapaksa failed to respond to their plea to reconsider the decision on the imposing of a levy on foreign programmes.
ETV head Laksman Bandaranayake told the Daily Mirror that they did not receive any response from the President yesterday as expected. However, he said that they had decided to watch the situation today.
He said ETV had decided to suspend all programmes that come under the new levy. “We are only telecasting news at the moment,” he said.
Meanwhile, Swarnavahini had decided to suspend all Hindi and English movies and replace them with local programmes. Swarnavahini Programmes Director Hema Nalin Karunaratne said they had made this decision as the levy imposed was high.
Responding to the TJIC statement which stated that other channels too were backing them, Mr. Karunaratne said he couldn’t comment as he was not aware of what transpired at Sunday’s media conference.
Earlier on Monday several TV channels warned that the country’s tele-industry would crumble as a result of this levy. They said it would deprive the village youth of the opportunity to learn English through their subtitled programmes.
A letter to the Media Minister, signed by all channel heads also urged the government to reconsider its decision.
According to the Finance Act No. 11 of 2006, Rs. 75,000 would be charged for every half-hour, while Rs. 90,000 would be levied for each dubbed programme. In addition, Rs. one million would be charged for foreign advertisements.
Source:DailyMirror
Yes ! Sirasa is purely an opportunistic channel. Same with their sister tv and radio channels. They never said a word about CBNSat and LBN closure because Sirasa knows they will be a threat to their viewership. They just wanted to show their indian dubbed crap to people.
All this time CBNSat and LBN have fought without any help from these so called media guardians and peoples channels etc. Now when the government puts their hand on these channels they come out and shout !!!! Even from that at the last moment TNL, Swarnavahini & Derana dropped. Now only Sirasa, Etv & Arttv is there to fight.
This clearly shows that everyone is having their own personal agendas. There is no unity among anyone of us left today. Everyone will wait till the enemy comes to their doorstep.
THEN IT WILL BE TOO LATE !!!!!!
Yes Bank dude !!!! You are absolutely correct. I think what the government should have done is to stop Sirasa Gon Depaya !!!!
By going to do that government have created a huge mess. I heard in several discussions gov officials said this decision is to protect the culture. Then they shoudl ban them completely. Here they are trying to earn something while destroying our culture.
I think sirasa will even continue to pay the taxes and show Gon Depaya because they have an enormous revenue generated from other programs.
But etv and arttv will suffer from this foolish idea of taxing. These are the only channels that were providing quality free to air english entertainment to people. And the transmission is also limited to colombo. And the people who watch etv and arttv will not go and watch the local crap on swarnavahini.
So the government have taken their right of access to information of these poeple.
Does anyone know the time of hearing?
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