This document is downloaded from DR-NTU, Nanyang Technological University Library, Singapore.

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1 Ths document s downloaded from DR-NTU, Nanyang Technologcal Unversty Lbrary, Sngapore. Ttle Country paper - Sr Lanka Author(s) Fernando, Erc. Ctaton Fernando, E. (1999). Country paper - Sr Lanka. In Deutsche Welle-AMIC Semnar on Rado Programmng n a Multmeda Age : Sngapore, May, Sngapore: Asan Meda Informaton and Communcaton Centre. Date 1999 URL Rghts

2 Paper No. 15 Deutsche Welle - AMIC Semnar on RADIO PROGRAMMING IN A MULTIMEDIA AGE COUNTRY PAPER - SRI LANKA jontly organsed by DW Deutsche Welle Rado Tranng Centre Koln, Germany am Asan Meda Informaton and Communcaton Centre (AMIC) Rver Vew Hotel, Sngapore May, 1999.

3 p. COUNTRY PAPER - SRI LANKA \ Rado Sr Lanka - Asa's Poneer Broadcaster j Sr Lanka was the frst Brtsh colony to enter the feld of Publc Servce Broadcastng. It was also the frst n Asa. The foundaton was lad by Rado Amateurs n Sr Lanka who bult a 250 watt transmtter usng parts taken off the rado equpment of a German submarne captured durng World War One when t ended n The then Governor of colonal Ceylon, Sr Wllam Henry Mannng, naugurated broadcastng on June wth a broadcast of an address to the Annual Sessons of the Engneerng Assocaton of Ceylon. Broadcasts were made two or three tmes a week, dependng on the avalablty of programme materal from July The new I I servce was a sngle transmsson carryng both western and orental programmng. Regular programmes ncluded studo concerts, news tems, church servces and other relays from outsde sources and talks nterspersed wth recorded musc. By the end of the year, a total of 456 programmes were broadcast n 415 hours of transmsson. Wth a seventy-year hstory behnd t, Rado Sr Lanka s today a forward-lookng staton wth I servces that rank wth some of the bgger statons n the world. ; The orgnal Broadcastng offce was located at the Central Telegraph buldng n the Colombo Fort. The entre complex ntally conssted of two rooms one of whch was the studo wth a mcrophone and pano Records were played off a gramophone. All the announcers were volunteers who dd not receve any remuneraton. At frst there was no commercal content whatsoever and toe only revenue came from large companes whch bought records for the staton. They were gven credt at the end of the song each tme t was played. 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO 5444] (2]001

4 P. 2 The Broadcastng Offce was shfted to a locaton at Torrngton Square n 1927 where t has remaned, except for a bref nterlude durng World War Two. Broadcastng n Sr Lanka took a new drecton when the Commercal Servce was founded n Clfford Dodd a veteran Australan broadcaster was seconded to the Rado Ceylon as t was known then, to ntroduce Sr Lankans to the dscplnes of Commercal Broadcastng. In spte of the huge revenues generated by the Commercal Arm, whch brought professonalsm to broadcastng n Sr Lanka, Rado Ceylon dd not forget ts role as a publc servce broadcaster, whch t fulfls to ths day. Today, Rado Sr Lanka broadcasts n Snhala Taml and Englsh on 53 frequences wth the Snhala Commercal Servce beamng programmes on a 24-hour bass. There are separate channels wth programmes on sports, specal Taml programmes for lsteners n the North-East of the country, and a Tarl transmsson very popular wth lsteners n South Inda. Addtonally, Rado Sr Lanka's All Asa Servces and South East Asa Servce reach a very wde audence on the Short Wave frequences. Seventeen transmttng statons located slandwde cover the entre country on FM Stereo, FM, MW & SW transmssons wth nearly 1,500 hours of programmng per week over twenty dfferent servces. The call sgn of the State Rado n Sr Lanka has undergone numerous changes over the years. Rado Ceylon the orgnal name of the Broadcastng Department, was changed to the Ceylon Broadcastng Corporaton and later to the Sr Lanka Broadcastng Corporaton whch t s offcally called even today. But the staton ID s now a less 2 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO

5 p. 3 verbose Rado Sr Lanka connotng the professonalsm and modernty requred to take on the prvate sector competton. The Sr Lanka Broadcastng Corporaton s the state broadcastng nsttuton n Sr Lanka. It has the country's most comprehensve studo facltes both n Colombo and the regonal statons. Facltes are avalable n Colombo for Studo recordngs, programme and voce relays and the producton of audo cassettes and Compact Dscs. Transmssons from the man studos n Colombo are fed to the repeater statons va mcrowave lnks. The programmng caters to a dverse lstenershp wth coverage of sports and other events, news, poltcs, educaton, relgous actvtes, gender and health ssues, trade, commerce and musc. Whle the Snhala Commercal Servce carres a 24-hour transmsson, other servces begn transmssons at dawn and many contnue tll late at nght. The coverage of domestc servces s over 90% of the populaton of Sr Lanka. The lstenershp s over 50%. The Foregn Servces of Rado Sr Lanka have a large audence, the largest beng n Inda. They also provde the major share of revenue. When the last major audence survey was conducted n 1990, there were 14 Mllon lsteners to the All Asa Hnd Servce. There were also 6.3 Mllon lsteners to the All Asa Taml Servce and 1.2 Mllon lsteners to the All Asa Englsh Servce. Even the broadcasts n Telugu, Ksnnada and Malayalam were lstened to by 1.3 Mllon people n the Indan State of Andhra Pradesh, One Mllon n Karnataka, 1.1 Mllon n Kerala and 330,000 people n Tamlnadu. More than 25 Mllon lsteners outsde Sr Lanka. In comparson, Sr Lanka's current populaton s 18 Mllon. 3 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO

6 P. 4 Among Rado Sr Lanka's greatest resources are ts broadcastng personnel. Wth such a long hstory behnd t the staton has become somethng of an academy of broadcastng. Generatons of rado artstes - presenters, newscasters, journalsts, sngers, muscans, lyrcsts, dramatsts and techncal staff have been traned at Rado Sr Lanka. The best nternatonal standards have been matched n Englsh and Taml, whle new ground has been broken n Smhala Rado. As employees of state rado, the staff have also benefted from nteractng wth broadcasters from around the world at nternatonal f ora and tranng programmes. Another perhaps nevtable consequence of longevty for a rado staton s an excellent archval lbrary. Rado Sr Lanka's archves are among the best. The materal ncludes coverage of every major nternatonal event from the declaraton of war n 1939 to the moon landng. Dozens of foregn Presdents, Prme Mnsters, Mnsters, Noblty and other dgntares have spoken on Rado Sr Lanka over the years. Rado Sr Lanka also has the dstncton of havng one of the best collectons of Englsh Records outsde the Unted States and Brtan. The thousands of ttles n the lbrary ndude rare orgnal recordngs that are not found anywhere else n Asa. 1. GEARING-UP FOR THE FUTURE The SLBC s fast gearng-up to face the challenges of the new mllenum. Broadcastng s no more a state monopoly. In order to effectvely compete wth the prvate sector, the government has decded to down-sze the SLBC to make t leaner and more effcent. A state-funded voluntary retrement package offers employees attractve compensaton. A 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO

7 PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING The Sr Lanka Broadcastng Corporaton s the poneer Publc Servce Broadcaster n South Asa. The Natonal Servces n the three languages have reorgansed ther I programmes to nclude more publc servce programmng NATIONAL INTEGRATION The SLBC s promotng the peace culture and mult-ethncty by carryng nteractve rado programmes whch allow partcpaton of lsteners from all over the sland va the telephone wthout any bas or dscrmnaton. Rado s expected to play a key role n the process of natonal ntegraton.! MW PROJECT TO REACH THE TAMIL SPEAKING POPULATION IN THE NORTHERN AND EASTERN PROVINCES The Irattaperyakulam medum wave staton was establshed last year to manly serve the Taml speakng populaton n the Northern and Eastern parts of the country. The Taml servce radated by ths staton reaches a target audence n areas where there s a strong LTTE presence. It reaches a vast area that would be very costly to cover on FM. The cost of ths project ncludng the 50W transmtter was only Rs. 50 Mllon. BALANCED REPORTING OF NEWS In the past few months, major changes have been made n the polcy regardng the SLBC's news broadcasts. It s beng transformed from "the vofce of the j government" to the "the voce of the people". Ths change has already won great acceptance from all quarters. 5 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO 5444] 12)005

8 P FM EXPANSION PROJECT In 1994 the government decded to extend the coverage of FM Broadcasts of the SLBC by expandng the techncal capabltes. The project s estmated to cost around Rs. 400 Mllon and s funded by the government. As a result, we have been able to provde mproved coverage to the North Western, North Eastern and North Central regons of the sland on all sx servces of the SLBC whch orgnate from Colombo, along wth the Rajarata Sevaya whch orgnates from the SLBC Studos n the North Central Provnce. Wth the completon of the project ths year, Rado Sr Lanka wll provde mproved coverage n the Western and Southern Provnces. RECUIA TORY A UTHQRIIY FOR BROADCASTING We have made the followng ntal submssons to Parlament for the establshment of a Regulatory Authorty for Broadcastng n Sr Lanka. Presently, the regulatory powers are wth the Mnstry of Posts, Telecommuncatons and The Meda, wth some of the functons though dormant, vested n the Sr Lanka Broadcastng Corporaton. The mason for state Involvement n broadcastng s because broadcastng uses a lmted natural resource.e. thefrequencyspectrum. The allocaton of frequences and the control of the frequency spectrum are not mentoned In the SLBC Act Ths s obvously because broadcastng was a state 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO

9 P. G monopoly when the Act was formulated. Today prvate statons have been lcensed wthout suffcent control partcularly over ther transmttng power lmts. In most countres, prvate Rado Statons are not countrywde. They are confned to specfc geographc areas. In Sr Lanka, the stuaton s dfferent; whle the SLBC was allowed only 1kW of power to run ts FM transmtters, some prvate operators were allowed 5 kw. The State Broadcaster was therefore faced wth unfar competton both for audence share and n artme sales. The pvotal role of the SLBC as the publc servce broadcaster and as the supervsory! and controllng agency for broadcastng n Sr Lanka by powers and functons conferred by the Act appear to have been gnored over the years. All Rado Statons, prvate or State owned should follow broadcastng Ethcs. Today there s no supervson of the programmes broadcast by the prvate rado statons. Ths despte there beng a specfc provson n the Act for the "control and supervson by the SLBC, of programmes broadcast from prvate broadcastng statons". Proper regulaton s necessary to prevent a decadence of our culture and to ensure peace and socal stablty through ethnc ntegraton. Anyone who takes control of a Rado Staton wth an Island-wde reach could cause mayhem n the country. Prvate Rado Statons too are at rsk. The current need s an Independent Regulatory Authorty far the Electronc Meda. 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO 5444] 007

10 P. 7 Ths body should set gudelnes, rules and regulatons, ensure complance, and deal wth non complance. Tho Authorty would ensure natonal nterest and consder carefully the future demands on the frequency spectrum. The job of a regulatory body should be to protect publc nterest n broadcastng and the ndependence of broadcastng However, t should not become Involved n programme content or play the role of a censor. The followng are some of the mportant areas that may be consdered before establshng the broadcastng regulatory authorty. 1. The purpose of ths Authorty should be to ensure the provson of free and edtorally ndependent Broadcastng both n the publc and n the prvate sector and to guarantee freedom of nformaton. 2. Broadcast servces should serve publc needs n nformaton, culture, educaton, and entertanment and reflect dversty of opnon. Programme content should respect the dversty of cultures. The basc rght to communcate n condtons of pluralsm and the equalty of opportunty among democratc groups and poltcal partes must be respected. 3. Broadcasters should be guaranteed ndependence from the state. They should be lcensed and regulated by, an answerable to an ndependent authorty for rado, televson and cable. 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO

11 P. B 4. The regulatory authorty shall be the sole broadcast-lcensng agency. It shall lcense all prvate broadcast servces, and wll set the terms and condtons of such lcenses. It wll have the power to penalze the broadcaster and n extreme cases to revoke a lcense (but such a measure should be subjected to contest at a court of law). 5. The Lcensee shall comply wth the relevant nternatonal agreements and the natonal laws on matters partcularly wth regard to copyrght, obscenty, prvacy and human rghts. 6. The Authorty shall regulate the level of ndependent producton carred out by each Lcensee so as to encourage dversty of sources of producton and the authorty should seek to actvely promote domestc programmng. 7. The authorty shall arrange a degree of access tme for the publc and balanced access for poltcal partes. I! 8. The Authorty may set lmts to advertsng revenues n order to ensure the approprate balance between the publc sector and the prvate sector. 9. The Authorty should not ssue broadcast lcenses to poltcal partes, advertsng agences, and enttes controlled by non-ctzens.! I 0. Tne 1 Mumuuy ma BSIHUUSH u Lumpmm wmmmoytb UHJI wnn nwwbwb WHO ' ' beleve they have been unfarly treated n a broadcast and who are not satsfed by the response of the lcensee. 9 05/05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO

12 P The Authorty shall assgn to a lcensee the approprate frequency or frequences reserved for broadcastng accordng to the frequency management agency (FMA). Ths agency shall be charged wth the far allocaton of the spectrum gven under nternatonal agreement. The Regulatory Authorty shall be gven full access to the Broadcastng n Sr Lanka s gearng-up to face new challenges. Both Rado and TV are woong an audence that s becomng more qualty conscous everyday. I am confdent that we n Sr Lanka would make judcous use of the new technologes wth a greater emphass on lstener-based programmng. Presented by Erc Fernando, Drector General, Sr Lanka Broadcastng Corporaton /05 '99 WED 16:31 [TX/RX NO 5444] 010