No more releases without Minister’s approval, PM tells Media Ministry Secretary

Following the fracas over a release issued by Media Ministry Secretary Nimal Bopage last week, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has issued strict instructions to the senior bureaucrat to refrain from issuing statements to the press without authorisation from the Minister in charge of Media.

Secretary Bopage was summoned to Temple Trees yesterday, for a ‘dressing down’ of sorts, after his release calling on the media to stop using the term ‘Joint Opposition’ to refer to the Rajapaksa faction in Parliament, with a thinly veiled threat of legal ramifications if the phrase was continued to be used by the media.

The vocal backlash prompted Media Minister Gayantha Karunathilake to clarify only hours after the release was made public, that the content of document on an official Media Ministry letter-head was only the Secretary’s ‘personal opinion’ and did not reflect Government policy.

Minister Karunatilake also attended the meeting with the Prime Minister at Temple Trees, and told reporters afterwards that Wickremesinghe had advised Bopage on how such matters should be dealt with in the future.

“Hereafter, these things will happen in a particular way,” the Minister said.

Karunathillake added there was no attempt by the Government to curtail the freedom of the press. Meanwhile, Convenor of the Joint Opposition, UPFA MP Dinesh Gunewardane said he would questioning the Media Ministry on this statement by the Secretary in Parliament.   (DB)