The Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Media Anusha Palpita yesterday (3) said that a standardised procedure for issuing licences to television (TV) and radio channels has already been prepared and that the draft has now been sent to the Attorney General's (AG) Department to obtain clearance.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday, Palpita said that immediately after receiving the clearance of the AG and the Parliament's approval, all the existing licences will be cancelled and steps will be taken to issue new licences according to the new procedure.

“We submitted a Cabinet paper and got the Cabinet of Ministers' approval to prepare a new procedure and a series of guidelines and a system for issuing licences to TV and radio channels. Accordingly, the prepared draft has been sent to the AG seeking his clearance. The AG's Department has not informed us about it yet. We need to receive it first to table this to the Parliament to get its approval. Once we have all these clearances, we will be taking further actions,” he said.

Speaking further, he said that the lack of common criteria for issuing licences according to the current procedure is a serious problem. “There is a lack of standard procedure in issuing licences. Some institutions have conditions, some have no conditions. But, if we take three institutions named x, y and z, there needs to be a common procedure in issuing licences for all these three institutions. But now, there is no such system. So, we are trying to have some standardised system which is more systematic that the existing regulations,” he said.

However, the Minister of Mass Media Dr. Bandula Gunawardana said in the Parliament last week that a new Electronic Broadcasting Authority Bill will be introduced soon and that a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Minister of Justice, President’s Counsel Dr. Wijeydasa Rajapakshe has been appointed to prepare this legislation. He also said that the procedure followed in granting licences to all TV and radio channels is questionable.