LNP – Government scraps move to regulate social media

The Government has decided to scrap moves to regulate social media and websites by law.

Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma, responding to a question posed by Daily Mirror at the post Cabinet press conference today, said that there was a move to introduce some amendments to the exiting regulations on the media.

However, instead of regulating social media or the media as a whole, Alahapperuma said the Government will look to discuss with the media how best to address the issue.

He said that already there are media ethics introduced by the Editor’s Guild of Sri Lanka and the Broadcasting Guild.

The Media Minister said that his intention is to get everyone together and reach an agreement on reporting ethics.

He noted that several people are often affected by misinformation and misreporting.

However, he said introducing tough laws is not the way to address the issue.

As a result, he said the Government policy now is to reach a collective agreement on how best to address the issue and not introduce tough laws.