The Presidential Media Awards with a view to evaluate the mission carried out by journalists as well as their contribution to the field for establishing an excellent media culture in the country will be held on April 10, 2019 at the BMICH in Colombo under the patronage of the President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.

The primary objective of organizing this award ceremony on annual basis is to evaluate skills, talents and special capabilities of journalists towards ushering in a media culture with social responsibility.
It is also aimed at encouraging the media in building up a well-informed civil society and to provide state sponsorship for journalists through evaluation of their performance covering the entire mass media field. Further, the identification and evaluation of talents, skills and the core competencies of journalists by Providing guidance and motivation to felicitate professional journalists will be an opportunity for young and energetic journalists to excel in the field of mass media

Applications submitted for awards should be a production of their own preferably sent through heads of the institution but it is also possible to submit it directly with the senders own certification.

Accordingly, only the creative work done within the period between 01.01.2017 and 31.12.2017 were considered for awards. The main criteria considered to be qualified for the awards were that the creative work should be their own and the relevant production must have been prepared as suitable to Sri Lankan viewers/ listeners. No foreign creations were considered.

The main committee was presented with nomination recommended for awarding through sub committees consisted of professionally qualified senior journalists appointed by the Ministry with the recommendations of media heads.
Following the advertisements published in the media on 13 July 2018, 1674 nominations were received within the specified period. It is expected to award to each field from all three languages. The numbers of awards to be given away are 51 covering all categories inclusive of the four life time awards.

In addition to selecting the award winners for their creations, the panel of judges have selected four distinguished media personnel for life time award. They are Dr.Edwin Ariyadasa in the field of Print Media, Mr.Karunarathna Amarasinghe in the field of Radio, Mr.Lucien Bulathsinhala in the field of Television media and Mr.Lakshman Jayawardene for the contribution in the field of web media.

This has been organized by the Ministry of Mass Media under the direction of Minister Ruwan Wijewardane and the supervision of the Secretary Ministry of Mass Media Mr.Sunil Samarweera.