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Move to impose standards on media thwarted
A move by the Media Ministry to slap down a Code of Ethics on Sri Lankan journalists has been thwarted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. “Such a code should come from the media itself,” he told a breakfast meeting of editors of national newspapers and heads of electronic media outlets.
The event was hurriedly summoned after President Rajapaksa learnt that a controversial code formulated by some officials in the Media Ministry was to be enforced on the media. The code itself has drawn severe criticism from media rights groups worldwide, civil society leaders and leading lawyers in Sri Lanka. Some of the highlights are vague references through which the Ministry sought to control the media. The code suggests that no publications that contains criticism affecting foreign relations should be published. Another says anything that contains materials against the integrity of the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative should not be published.
President Rajapaksa acknowledged that a Code of Ethics formulated by the Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka was now in place. However, he noted that such a code should now encompass the electronic media and could be further improved. “I have decided to give the responsibility to the journalists themselves to come out with a Code of Ethics”, he added.
He said he had observed the strong criticism against the proposed Code of Ethics which was circulated, but felt that there should not be any dispute about the proposed document which was not even a law. The New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) group earlier this week that the new media code proposed by the Sri Lankan government contained overbroad and vague language that could have a severe and chilling effect on free speech.
“The Government’s proposed media code is part of a sustained campaign to control the media and curtail dissent,” Brad Adams, Asia director for HRW was quoted as saying. The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka already has a narrowly drafted code of practice that has been endorsed by the International Federation of Journalists and its affiliates in Sri Lanka, the HRW said.
“The new media code is unnecessary and is little more than a heavy-handed assault on the remnants of Sri Lanka’s free press,” Adams said. “The code would hand the Sri Lankan authorities a new tool to harass and threaten journalists who are already working in a very difficult environment.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also based in New York said the code would impose harsh restrictions on journalists’ ability to report freely.
“As Sri Lanka prepares to host the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime should stop expending energy on imposing a code that would further suppress the country’s already dwindling free press,” said CPJ’s Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz.
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