"The year 2019 was challenging for Sri Lanka, with the Easter Sunday Attacks and the subsequent anti-Muslim riots paralyzing the country and the economy. After the Easter Sunday attacks, the first terrorist attacks on Sri Lankan soil in a decade, it was expected that the media would play a responsible role in reporting on the tragedy and addressing the preceding circumstances. However, many Media Sustainability Index (MSI) panelists believe that after a few days of responsible reporting of relaying government warnings and urging the public to be careful, most media stations decided to capitalize on fear and mistrust to fulfill their commercial and political agendas. After the Easter Sunday attackers were revealed to be Islamic fundamentalists, many media institutions, especially the private media, shifted their tone and fostered a culture of fear and suspicion against Muslims. Many attributed anti-Muslim riots that took place in May 2019 to the media’s anti-Muslim rhetoric [...] Many MSI panelists with print media ties expressed serious concern over the industry’s future. They noted that following the Easter Sunday attacks and the impact on advertising, a significant number of people were laid off, employee benefits were cut, and advertisers have not returned, even though the economy somewhat recovered in late 2019. Although mainstream media, especially print, has faced many disruptions in the last 20 years (i.e., the digitization of content, the spread of social media, and the acceleration of mobile consumption), the panelists believe the current disruption may be unprecedented. Panelists warned that unless media owners analyze the situation and make significant changes, the economic crisis following the Easter Sunday attacks, will exacerbate the print media’s decline." (Page 5)