News First

Sri Lankan broadcaster and digital news outlet operated by Maharaja Organisation. Publishes breaking news and current affairs in English alongside its Sinhala and Tamil television channels.

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News First at a glance

Country: Sri Lanka
Region: South Asia · Asia
Kind of outlet: Television news channel
Editorial leaning: Centrist
Website: newsfirst.lk ↗
Preview: Renders inside Crosswire's comparison panes (last checked 2026-10-12).

The preview status comes from the weekly audit that requests every outlet through Crosswire's own edge — see how the fetcher identifies itself.

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How Crosswire groups News First

Crosswire groups News First as Centrist for comparisons within Sri Lanka's directory. Center includes both centrist outlets and outlets for which the directory has no confident classification. It is not evidence that this outlet is neutral or more accurate.

Compare News First with another outlet from Sri Lanka covering the same event and edition. Record the headline, publication time, named sources and links to original evidence. Similar leaning labels can still produce different coverage; a different label does not guarantee an independent source. Check the articles before interpreting a front-page difference as bias.

This is an approximate orientation, not a definitive judgement — and not a rating of quality or accuracy. Read how Crosswire classifies editorial leanings. This profile does not include an individual assessment citation. Page updated 2026-09-28; this is a content-change date, not a fresh fact-check of the outlet. Think this label is wrong? Suggest a correction.

Where News First sits in Sri Lanka's press

News First is one of 6 outlets tracked in Sri Lanka, and one of 2 television news channels among them — the other being Ada Derana. By outlets tracked, Sri Lanka ranks seventh of the 33 countries on Crosswire's Asia hub, which lists 169 outlets in all.

Across Asia, Crosswire tracks 12 of the 66 television news channels in the directory. The nearest counterparts to News First outside Sri Lanka, starting with South Asia, are Channel NewsAsia (Singapore), GMA News (Philippines), Democratic Voice of Burma (Myanmar) and NDTV (India). Opening one of them beside News First is the quickest way to see what is a house style and what is a national one.