New election media monitoring centre

A group of reputed media specialists have set up a centre  for Election Media Monitoring and Voter Awareness (EMMVA) to enhance  media professionalism and to ensure adherence to media ethics and  democratic values in election coverage.  

Convener of EMMVA, Prof Tudor Weerasinghe and EMMVA members  comprising senior academics and media personnel will hold a meeting  with the Election Commission this week to discuss issues pertaining to  media monitoring during the current Presidential Election campaign. They  will also exchange views with other local election observing groups and  the European Union.  

The Election Commission of Sri Lanka as the electoral  administrator has issued guidelines to the media on good practices during  the forthcoming Presidential Election. The mass media are increasingly  recognised as playing a crucial role in free and democratic elections.   

In these circumstances, it is necessary to observe and  review all media behaviours during the elections and inform the Election  Commission and the people of the country about the ethical and unethical  behaviours of media. 

This centre titled, ‘Election Media Monitoring and  Voter Awareness’ (EMMVA) has been established for this purpose.  

Its objective is to ensure a disciplined political culture  for the functioning of a better mass media, which will adhere to  ethical and professional media standards to strengthen democratic values  in Sri Lanka.