Colombo: Following a comprehensive, long-term consultation process, the Advanced Draft of the ‘National Media Policy of Sri Lanka’ was officially presented yesterday to the Minister of Health and Mass Media, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, and the Deputy Minister of Mass Media, Dr. Kaushalya Ariyarathne, at the Ministry of Mass Media auditorium.

According to News.LK, the policy framework was prepared by an independent multi-stakeholder committee appointed by the Ministry of Mass Media, with contributions from hundreds of stakeholders over a period of more than two years, spanning from May 2023 to December 2025. The Minister of Health and Mass Media, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, highlighted at the event that the people’s struggle (Aragalaya) underscored the urgent need for comprehensive policies across multiple sectors in Sri Lanka. He emphasized that this media policy does not solely belong to the Ministry; instead, the Ministry’s role was to facilitate the process. Dr. Jayatissa described the drafting of such a unanimously agreeable policy by an independent multi-stakeholder committee as a historic achievement. The Minister also noted that the Ministry focused on media freedom, professionalism of journalists, and the impact on citizens throughout this process.

The Initial Draft (Zero Draft) of this policy was prepared and presented in July 2024 by an initial drafting committee of 23 members, appointed by the Ministry of Mass Media in 2023. The process of preparing the advanced draft was expanded by a multi-stakeholder committee of 28 members, reappointed by the current government in early 2025. To gather public feedback, the initial draft was published in all three languages on the Ministry’s website starting in June 2025. Public contribution was enhanced by gathering views from civil society representatives, journalists, and women activists, conducted across regions centering on Colombo, Kandy, Puttalam, Trincomalee, and Jaffna, in collaboration with the Ministry of Mass Media, South Asian Women in Media (SAWM), and the Free Media Movement (FMM).

The event was attended by government officials, including the Director General of Government Information, Mr. Harsha Bandara, and the Director (Development – Mass Media) of the Ministry of Mass Media, Mrs. Nelum Dilshari, alongside members of the expert committee that drafted the National Media Policy.