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Media in Sri Lanka is free in most cases to express their opinions. Despite some political instability in the country between the Sinhalese and the LTTE, the media is working fine. The traditional media outlets consist of newspaper, television, radio and online based news portals. Media censorship was a subject to be practiced regularly during the wartime but now the scenario has changed to a great extent. The fundamental freedom of media was ensured in 1996 but the media outlets also experienced again the similar issue back in 1998.
Most of the media outlets publish their contents using local languages like Tamil and Sinhala. Besides, there are some media outlets in the English language. The media outlets experienced restrictions some of the times but they remained free all the other times and published various types of news and information on their respective media outlets.
The media censorship was imposed on the media outlets back in 1998 to get some tactical benefits for the LTTE people. The media outlets used to carry some vital information for publication and broadcast and those were the key issues for the LTTE supporters and people. They did not want the information to be leaked or exposed. So, they imposed a censorship on media. News coverage was ban in some parts of the country and even the videotapes had to pass some military censorship before the broadcast. Journalists were disallowed in the war zones too.
The relation of state and press is supposed to be easier and flexible. And it was to be maintained unless there are no security threats from the media outlets in the country. Occasional actions are taken against media outlets for such violations.
Around 47 print media outlets are available in Sri Lanka. They are published in different languages including English, Tamil, and Sinhala. Some of the newspapers and magazines are biweekly and weekly. Almost all the newspapers contain the local and international affairs. They come with news and information of varied interest. The number of readerships is also high, particularly the number of English language readers is higher than the other types of newspapers. The print media outlets are careful and have imposed a self-censorship on them. They do not publish any news and information that may affect the national security and other national issues.
There are three major radio broadcasting stations are available across the country. They broadcast in different languages including English. The radio broadcast began in the country since 1984 and at that time, radio was under the government ownership. But with the passage of time, the radio broadcasting has been expanded to a great extent. In line with the state, now there are some private radio stations are also operating in Sri Lanka. They broadcast in several languages. besides
Around 30 television channels are broadcasting in the country now. They come with different languages and contents. Most of the television channels provide entertainment to the audience. They come with news and shows at different times of the day. Some of the television channels broadcast around the day and night while some other have limited operations.
The use of the internet is available across the country. And there are numerous websites are available and even the major newspapers have their own websites. They cater different types of needs of the visitors every day.