Ravaya’s money-laundering accusation against Sathhanda!

 

Mar 15, 2016

‘Ravaya’, in its latest issue, has published an article titled ‘Newspapers in money laundering’. According to sources at the newspaper, the article is targeting ‘Sathhanda’ newspaper.

 

The ‘Ravaya’ article says,

 

‘No one knows who is funding the newspaper. But, on payday, someone comes and hands over money to the management to pay the salaries.’ That is how one of our colleagues in the newspaper described how they get paid.

 

That is true. In some newspapers in Sri Lanka, the journalists do not know who the owners are. They do not go to find out either.

 

At one time, newspapers were owned by casino businessmen. At other time, the owners were politicians. Another time, as our colleague said, ‘nobody knows’ the owner.

 

What is surprising is that the revolutionaries in these media institutions, who criticize everyone in the outside, big or small, for money laundering and massive rackets, do not find out the sources from which they get paid, or even if they do not, look the other way and talk about what is wrong elsewhere in the country.

 

A recent survey showed that Sri Lanka had only two profit-earning newspaper companies. One is Wijaya Newspapers, the publisher of ‘Lankadeepa.’ The other is Express Newspapers that publishes ‘Virakesari.’

 

The other newspaper institutions are running at losses. To run at a loss, money will have to be pumped from some source. Where does that money come from?

 

Some newspaper institutions have their own diversified businesses. The profits thus earned could be invested on the newspapers. However, there are institutions that do not belong to that category and run only newspapers, and from where do they get funds?