Media coverage on C’wealth guidelines

Sri Lanka’s Task Force Secretariat for the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) yesterday endorsed the Commonwealth Secretariat’s position that the process of accrediting all international and domestic media would be “based entirely on Commonwealth Secretariat guidelines”.

It specified that the Commonwealth Secretariat in London will review and process the accreditation of international media “in consultation with the CHOGM 2013 Taskforce Secretariat in Colombo”.

This position is identical to that taken by the Commonwealth Secretariat in a statement issued by Richard Uku, its official spokesman, on Thursday. It said, “As is customary, the Commonwealth Secretariat is the final authority for all international media accreditation for CHOGM.”

Yesterday’s statement also affirmed that, “As the host country, Sri Lanka will be responsible for processing the visa applications of all accredited international media” but had omitted the word “approving”.

Yesterday’s statement was signed by Charitha Herath, Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Media, Publicity and ICT of the CHOGM 2013 Taskforce Secretariat. It also said local media applications “will be reviewed by the Ministry of Mass Media and Information of Sri Lanka”.

( SEE CAFÉ SPECTATOR ON PAGE 2)