Eight most prominent media organisation in Sri Lanka this week reiterated their united opposition to the re-activation of the Press Council saying that it was aimed at stifling media freedom in the country by threatening to throw journalists in jail. A meeting was held on Tuesday at the J.R.Jayewardene Centre in Colombo to launch a signature campaign for a letter addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the issue.
Representatives from the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka, Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, Free Media Movement, Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions, Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and the South Asia Free Media Association spoke at the event attended by Opposition politicians and civil rights activists among others.
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| Organisers of the event from left: A. Nixon Sri Lanka Tamil Media alliance, Dharmasiri Lankapeli Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions, Sunil Jayasekera FMM, Sisira Vithanage National Media forum, M.M. Ameen Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, Thilakaratna Bandara Editors Guild and Manik de Silva President Editors Guild |
The President of the Editors Guild and Sunday Island Editor, Manik de Silva said the Guild will provide its fullest support to the campaign.
Secretary of the FMM Sunil Jayasekara said that journalists were under severe threat. He said since 1994 at least 38 media workers in the country had been killed.
“Those who have been killed are not those who have carried weapons. They are not LTTE members. But they have been killed because of their journalistic work”.
“It is the right of the people to be aware. Therefore that is the reason the public should support such campaign. We call the public to support this campaign because attacking journalists means this right of the people is being plundered”, he said.
He said that all media organisations have resolved that they will oppose the reactivation of the Press Council.
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing the gathering said traitors destroyed journalists and patriots protected journalists. He added traitors were reactivating the Press Council and patriots were opposing the Press Council.
He said government was bound by the Constitution and international law to protect journalists, he was therefore calling on government to ensure journalists were protected in the country.
“Today I see journalists with several pirith threads seeking protection from evil forces. Today the LTTE is not active. There is no other organisation engaged in terrorist activity. I blame the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa for harassing journalists”, he said.
He said in 2002 media organisations requested his government to abolish the Criminal Defamation Law and accordingly the law was scrapped.
When he was Prime Minister there were all-party discussions to abolish the Press Council. " We were in the process of discussing the issue with media organisations, the government and the Opposition. The proposal was to have a self-regulatory Press Complaints Commission. The media organisations did not want state money, instead they obtained foreign assistance to set up the Commission together with the newspaper industry ”, he said.
“It was during this time former President Chandrika Kumaratunga took over the Media Ministry and two other portfolios in November 2003 and we could not implement our decision”, he said.
Mr. Wickremesinghe said that it was incorrect to say that the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) took a decision to reactivate the Press Council as it had been discussed only once at the meetings.
Text of the letter to the President
Your Excellency,
We, the undersigned media practitioners in Sri Lanka are desirous in brining the following matters to Your Excellency’s attention;
1. We are extremely concerned and perturbed over moves by your Excellency’s Government to re-activate the Press Council, which has the power to imprison us.
2. The Press Council was made defunct following an un-written bona-fide contract between the political parties represented in Parliament in or about 2002- 2003, and the Media organisations representing publishers, editors, working journalists and media activists to introduce, promote and support a self-regulatory mechanism in place of the statutory Press Council.
3. The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka was thereby established in 2003 with a Dispute Resolution Council comprising a majority of non-media representatives, chaired by Mr. Sam Wijesinha to settle disputes between the public and the press under the Arbitration Act No 11 of 1995.
4. Additionally, the Press Complaints Commission has entertained and disposed over seven hundred (700) complaints, and undersigned to co-operate with the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka and support the rules and procedures of the said Commission.
5. An Editors Code of Professional Practice has been formulated by the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka, whose membership includes editors of the national newspapers published in Sri Lanka. This Code is implemented through our respective newspapers and the said Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka.
6. Your Excellency will note that as a direct result of the establishment of the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka, media establishments have adopted a culture of publishing more frequently a Right of Reply by persons aggrieved by matters published in the newspapers.
7. The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka offers redress to the public fairly and speedily and at no cost to the state.
8. The re-introduction of the Press Council is an archaic and retrogressive step as well as a blow to media freedom and democracy in Sri Lanka.
9. We urge Your Excellency’s Government to repeal the draconian Press Council Law No. 15 of 1973 and place Your Excellency’s trust in the media while supporting self-regulatory mechanism for the media as is done in advanced democracies.
10. We, the undersigned urge Your Excellency’s Government to introduce progressive legislation instead, such as a Right to Information Act as in India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Thailand and over one hundred other countries around the world, which would be of immense benefit to the citizens of Sri Lanka.
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