Ravi takes potshot at scribes, demand their asset declarations

Karunanayake

by Ajith Alahakoon and Kushan Subasinghe-September 8, 2017, 11:27 pm 

Former foreign minister Ravi Karunanayake, yesterday proposed in Parliament that journalists be made to declare their assets and liabilities.

"Media personnel should also be made to declare their assets and liabilities in order to ensure their integrity," MP Karunanayake said.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said he did not have the authority to do so.

Chief Opposition whip Anura Kumara Dissanayake said there were laws already in place under which editors and others had to submit to the Sri Lanka Press Institute. "Media personnel could be made to declare their assets to the media ministry," he said.

The proposal was made while the House was discussing reports of non declaration of assets and liabilities by the MPs.

Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera said ministers had declared their assets to the President. He told the Speaker to get the information from the Presidential Secretariat and publish them." Please get information and publish them as we cannot afford to get lambasted by the media even after declaring assets," he said.

Joint opposition MP Bandula Gunawardena told the Speaker to ensure that information about the MPs who had declared assets was published.