Colombo: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga today (November 6) announced she was taking total control of State-run radio, television and newspapers amid a deepening political crisis but said she will allow media freedom.

Kumaratunga, who sacked the Information Minister together with the Ministers of Defence and Interior on Tuesday (Nov 4), said that she had reconstituted the Boards of management of four State-owned media institutions.

"The President has ensured the media full freedom of expression," her office said in a statement. "The first obligation of these media institutions will be to inform the country (of) the facts and events without prejudice or conscious partisanship."

The statement was the first official acknowledgement by the President that she was now running the largest news network in the country.

Agencies