A day after declaring emergency, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Thursday took control of the state-run radio, television and newspapers.
The president, who sacked Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, Interior Minister John Amaratunga and Information Minister Imthiaz Bakeer Markar on Tuesday, said she would allow the media full freedom of expression.
"The first obligation of these media institutions will be to inform the country the facts and events without prejudice or conscious partisanship," her office said in a statement.
"The news and information disseminated will not violate the laws of the land, offend common cannons of decency and imperil social well-being or place national security in jeopardy," it said.
The statement came as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe rushed back from the United States after securing Washington's support to the peace process with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and his cabinet denounced as "gross abuse of presidential power" Kumaratunga's decision to suspend parliament for two weeks and sack the ministers.
"There is no vestige of justification for the president's actions," government spokesperson G L Peiris said announcing the cabinet's demand to reconvene Parliament and reinstate the ministers.