Norway extends key funding for Sri Lanka Press Institute

The Royal Norwegian Government signed an agreement with the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) recently to grant NOK 600,000 (Rs. 10.5 million) for the institute’s activities over the next two years.

An agreement was signed by the Norwegian Ambassador in Sri Lanka Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether and SLPI Chairman Kumar Nadesan in Colombo in recognition of the SLPI’s work in the field of media freedom and social development.

The Norwegian Government has been one of the long-time financial supporters of the activities of the SLPI, the industry-based organisation managed by the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, the Free Media Movement and the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association affiliated with the Federation of Media Workers Trade Unions, the Sri Lanka Chapter of the South Asian Free Media Association, Tamil Media Forum and Muslim Media Forum.

The latest grant is broadly for SLPI to provide for the creation of a conducive environment for Freedom of Expression, especially through the Right to Information Act; to promote the Code of Professional Practice (The Editors’ Code) of The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka in the newsrooms and among provincial correspondents and for the promotion of professionalism among journalists in Sri Lanka.

The SLPI is the umbrella organisation of the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka, the self-regulatory industry-based mechanism responsible for promoting The Editors’ Code and the Sri Lanka College of Journalism which conducts diploma and mid-career courses in journalism.