Friday, June 16, 2006

Government to impose fine on TV Stations

Power and Energy Minister John Senevirathne appealed to the public to go to bed early, apparently at 10:00PM. In addition to this there will be a monthly payment of Rs 1 Million for TV stations who broadcast after 10PM. He is to have meetings with the operators of TV stations.

Apparently without increasing the power output in the country, the present government is trying to reduce the power consumption using the citizens of this country. There is also said to be a remarkable increase in the power consumption since the local time was changed from GMT + 6 to GMT + 5:30.

In this age of Internet, Satellite Television, Cable TV, I wonder whether this is a responsible statement to make.

It is true that Sri Lankans should stand united and his other suggestions such as installation of CFL bulbs are excellent directives, but it is unfair to carry out something like this. Working class people often finish their housework and watch tv around 10PM will be deprived of entertainment and tv stations will lose advertising revenue.

I wonder whether this will apply to Cable TV providers who in any event will not be able to stop their broadcasts after 10PM, because if it does there may be a increase in monthly fees.

Hope the minister will reconsider and find alternative solutions to the power crisis.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What rubbish is this ?

What about renting or buying DVD's VCD's and watching them after 10 p.m. ? Can government stop that too ? What about free to air channels that is beamed to Sri Lanka ? people can watch them 24 hours !

Very soon they will say power will not be available from 10 p.m. Then we'll need to be in the dark. Is this responsible governing ? I think we should go back to GMT +6 time band to save some daylight and promote the use of energy saving bulbs for lighting and refrain from using elctric kettles and electric kettles. We could use gas instead.

We'll always support the governments effort to save electricity. But not by idiotic way like the ministers suggetion.

Anonymous said...

I think the minister should go and check his brain.where exactly it is now.

when the world is into HDTV he wants us to tune into the radio and sleep early.may be he likes muwanpelessa.

This guy is good to be a president in an african country.

The voters are blamed to elect such a dumb idiotic lousy goat.

When we see the governemnt is shutting cable tv this fellow is talking of reducing and telling su to sleep early.Is he really nuts??

waiting till the next election to send him to sleep forever.

Anonymous said...

the population of srilanka will sure go up by a 100 times!!! people wont have anything better to do!!!

Anonymous said...

FMM against proposed 10 p.m. TV ban

The Free Media Movement (FMM) strongly opposes the government’s decision to stop television broadcasts by 10 p.m. to conserve power.

The FMM said this was a blatant violation of the people’s right to information.

Convener, FMM, Sunanda Deshapriya told The MorningLeader that this would restrict the middle-class Sinhala-speaking people from being informed.

"Those who have money and who can understand English could watch foreign television channels through satellites. It’s the normal people who would be deprived of that right as well," he said.

He further said the media should not be looked down upon in this manner since it could play a very positive role in the development of the country.

Deshapriya said that 24-hour news channels have become indispensable in Sri Lanka after incidents like the tsunami. He further said that providing sufficient power is the duty of the government.

Anonymous said...

Next time these idiots will shut down internet service providers saying that u can watch tv and listen to radio through internet and hence u need a media licence for that.

Is this the type of fools who runs this country ? No wonder that this country is in this state !

They'll ask mobile companies also to obtain media licence because u can watch streamind video on them. State channels are also seen on mobile streaming ! So is this illegal too ?????????

See by going to hide a unjust thing that CID had done to CBN on the orders of Mr. SHITNet and few the whole country is in a mess !!!

Is this RATA PERATA ???????
Or what ????????????

Anonymous said...

I feel it's neccesary to have access to news 24 hours for people. Electronic media is the fastest in bringing in security updates and news abour natural disastes like tsunamis, floods, hurricanes etc.

Banning TV, RADIO after 10 p.m. or imposing a tax is an idiotic decesion by a foolish minister !