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Social media regulated to avert mounting protest against govt: Hadunnetti
The government is plotting to introduce laws to regulate the media and social media in a move to prevent the mounting protests by the people against the government, JVP politburo member Sunil Hadunnetti said.
He said during a meeting with a group of Sri Lankans in South Korea that the government has introduced various laws to regulate the media as it was well aware that the people are against its actions.
"The media disseminate information to the people. If the government is working to the expectations and not defrauding and looting public property, the government should not be afraid of the people and the media. The government, including the President, knows very well that the people are against them. The President is someone who was rejected by the people. So, he knows that the people are against him. He is afraid of possible protests by the people. If the people tolerate and approve of the government's actions, they are not scared," he said.
Hadunnetti said media and social media have changed remarkably now and added that the governments in the past had taken the electronic media under their control.
He said if the government was attempting to suppress the media, it would be the first occasion where the government would have to come under suppression by the people.
Hadunnetti said former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa also attempted to regulate the media where he banned Facebook and WhatsApp overnight and added that people did not accept it.
"If people had accepted it, he would still be in power. He had to leave the position because he resorted to such actions. If President Ranil Wickremesinghe also looks back and gives it a thought, he will not do such things," he said.(Ajith Siriwardana)
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