NewsFirst or News 1st is a Sri Lankan news organization owned by th
Capital Maharaja Organization Ltd
News 1st primarily broadcasts news, live on three TV channels ( Sirasa TV, Shakthi TV, TV 1, five radio channels (

Sirasa FM Sirasa FM is a Sinhala language radio station in Sri Lanka. MBC Networks, a subsidiary of Sri Lankan conglomerate Capital Maharaja Group, operate the radio station. It is one of the three successful radio stations started by MBC Networks in the 199 ...

Yes FM ' Yes 101 (100.8, 101.0 F.M.) is an English radio station in Sri Lanka. Yes FM principally plays contemporary hit music. Yes 101 commenced broadcasting on December 10, 1993, at 6.00 am. It is one of the radio channels owned by The Capital Ma ...

Shakthi FM Shakthi FM is a Sri Lankan Tamil language channel available on air. Shakti, Shakthi ("power"), from Tantra, Tantric Shaktism is the female divine energy of creation. One of the Tamil radio channel with island-wide coverage, including the Jaffna P ...

, Y FM and Legends FM), three websites in Sinhala, English &

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

languages, and social media platforms (

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Programmes

Village Council (Gammadda)

News 1st initiated the
Gammadda
programme to invigorate the Village Council fora, by taking it to the masses and strengthening the fundamentals of democracy by instilling the idea that the relevant authorities and highest echelons of government are directly responsible to the people.

Construction Clinic (Danamuthu Sayanaya)

News 1st
S-Lon
Construction Clinic called Danamuthu Sayanaya is another initiative carried out with the participation of renowned architects, builders, and engineers in the country. These professionals provide advice free of charge.

News 1st Classroom (Media Workshop)

News 1st Outreach reaches out to youth, to nurture them with media literacy and communication, and to make a better future through News 1st Classroom.

Dawasa Political Programme

Dawasa is a program which is focused on the current political situation in Sri Lanka where two expert journalists in the field of politics will share their views, along with News 1st presenter Roshan Watala. It expresses the comments, impressions and drawbacks faced by the general public on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

such as

and

Recognition

A news documentary series telecasted on News 1st, based on International Water Day, was awarded the silver medal at the

United Nations Correspondents Association The United Nations Correspondents Association (U.N. Correspondents Association), or UNCA, was founded in New York City in 1948. It has over 250 members today . It presents the annual UNCA Excellence in Journalism Awards. The purpose of the awards ...

Awards (UNCA Award), which was held in

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 2013. Director of English News Shameer Rasooldeen, and Executive Producer Zulfick Farzan of News 1st compiled the award-winning story. News 1st Digital is the official web news provider under the Capital Maharaja Organization umbrella in association with the Maharaja

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and

broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

services. News 1st Digital launched its

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

, newsfirst.lk in 2007. newsfirst.lk is Sri Lanka's first trilingual website and provides the latest news updates and

breaking news Breaking news, also called late-breaking news, a special report, special coverage, or a news flash, is a current issue that warrants the interruption of a scheduled broadcast in order to report its details. News broadcasters also use the term ...

in English, Sinhala and Tamil for local, business, political, lifestyle, entertainment and sports news. In August 2013, the newsfirst.lk English website was awarded a silver medal at the Bestweb.lk Awards. In August 2014, the English website was awarded another silver medal at the Bestweb.lk Awards and the bronze medal was awarded to the Tamil website.

Controversy

References

External links

*In English/Sinhala/Tamil
newsfirst.lk
{{Media of Sri Lanka MTV Channel Sri Lankan news websites Publications established in 2003