Social Reconciliation revolves mainly on media - Prof.Ariyarathna Athugala
Social Reconciliation revolves mainly on media. There are factors in media that influence the good or ill incidents in our daily lives.
We organized this workshop to improve and develop the relationships between the government and the media as well as the media and the Ministry said Prof.Ariyarathna Athugala, Director General of the Govt.Information Department.
He was speaking at the workshop held at the Department of Government Information on Wednesday on the subject "Social Reconciliation and Use of Media". The Workshop was held under the patronage of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa with the participation of Minister of Mass Media and Information Keheliya Rambukwella.
Prof.Athugala said "based on the good relationships we maintain with the media, the Government Information Department organized similar workshops to discuss relevant topics which are timely, for the betterment of the future society".
"We are living in an age where media plays a very important role and therefore this subject should be discussed in dept. Media can build good relationships with people all over the world. Specialists have indicated that we live in an 'image world'. They are also of opinion that if we don’t discuss this subject now it will not be conducive to the wellbeing of the society," said Prof.Athugala. The professor pointed out that the main instrument that influences social reconciliation is media and there is a current discussion on the relationships between the media and different strata in society. A global model still has not been introduced and therefore the policy on media in different countries varies depending on their requirements, added Prof.Athugala.
The UNESCO recently pointed out that media freedom cannot be taken by itself as there are other factors influencing media freedom. They are democracy, development and dialogue. Workshops on media freedom should be organized not only to discuss the freedom and the rights of the media personnel but the protection and the freedom of the recipients.
Monitoring MP of Media Ministry A.H.M.Azwer, Media Ministry Secretary Charitha Herath were also present.
