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winner dreams of a borderless subcontinent But nothing in his 50-year career had given a pleasant surprise as what happened on Friday night. “Overwhelmed,” was the reaction of Nayar when he was presented with the prestigious Astor Award for 2003, the highlight of the biennial conference of the Commonwealth Press Union at the farewell dinner in Colombo. “I thought the token presentation made earlier to someone else was the real thing. Not a word was whispered to me. I never realised until halfway through the citation that the CPU was referring to me. Someone close to me nudged me during the citation. I am absolutely surprised and nonplussed,” silver-haired Nayar, told The Sunday Times in a brief interview after the presentation. The citation read to the large and distinguished delegates, both foreign and local, gathered under the stars in the beautiful terrace of the Continental Hotel, by Philip Astor, younger son of the famous Lord and Lady Astor who had initiated the award, stated, “Few people in South Asia can be said to have upheld the independence of the journalist over such a long period and with such consistency as this year’s recipient of the Astor Award. “The winner this year is one of the most renowned of Indian journalists. A lawyer, author, MP and human rights and media rights activist, his illustrious career has spanned five decades during which he has worked for most of the influential newspapers and news agencies in India. He was also a distinguished diplomat and following his appointment as High Commissioner to London, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha of the Indian Parliament in August 1997. Widely published as an author since 1969, his books have concentrated on national and international affairs. From the time of Nehru, he has always personified and supported the values of the Commonwealth.” Nayar, now 76, never wanted to be a journalist. He did law but was forced to leave his hometown on the side of Pakistan when India was partitioned. He came to India as a refugee with just Rs. 140 in his pocket, what his mother gave him before he left. “With the partitioning, one million people, on both sides of the divide were butchered and 20 million were uprooted from their homes,” says Nayar recalling the impact the aftermath of partitioning had on his life. He looked around for a job and joined a newspaper as a cub reporter. From then on, there has been no looking back. Covering most of the important events, which have shaped the recent history of India, he was jailed for six months without trial for criticizing the draconian action taken by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi under the infamous 20-month emergency of the 1970s. “But we were able to save democracy then. Today, the threat is to secularism,” he says. And his vision and struggle as part of the organizations, ‘Citizens for Democracy’ and ‘South Asia Human Rights’ or SAHR which means dawn, is to have a “borderless” subcontinent. “We need to transcend borders. We shouldn’t have visas and customs when we go into each other’s country. There should be no economic barriers. We should be many nations, retaining individual identities, religions and culture but one people, one South Asian entity,” he pleads. Nayar missed a rare opportunity to meet LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, many years ago. “They (LTTE) wanted to bring me their way into Sri Lanka from India to meet Prabhakaran. But I insisted that if we are to meet I should travel through Colombo. First presented in 1970, The Astor Award was originated by the late Lord Astor of Hever, long-standing President of the Commonwealth Press Union and former owner of The Times of England, who was committed to the furtherance of press freedom throughout the Commonwealth. The only Sri Lankan to win the Astor Award was the publisher of Independent Newspapers Limited, the late Sepala Gunasena for standing up to the wrath of the Sirima Bandaranaike government, which sealed the group in 1974. Independent Newspapers published the now defunct Sun, Weekend, Dinapathi, Chiththamani and Davasa and Riviresa newspapers. - Kumudini/Renuka Media
freedom, responsibility and interpretation
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told a meeting of the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) in Colombo last week that media freedom includes media responsibility but he was against legislating on a set of responsibilities for the media. "We believe, that ultimately, the sense of media responsibility must be self-grown by the media. It cannot be imposed by the government, even though there are several challenges that face us with regards to the media reportage of the current ceasefire and the overall peace process," Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told the CPU conference held at the Trans Asia Hotel in Colombo on Tuesday. He said that when one looked back at the role of the media vis a vis the ethnic conflict, it was evident that the government of the day and the media has travelled parallel paths. "When the country was at war, the media supported the war - without further discussion. Consequently it was very rarely that the armed forces and military strategy were ever questioned or critiqued. Those who questioned were deemed unpatriotic. Many of the crucial issues and actual figures regarding the battlefields were never brought to the public gaze," he said. The Premier pointed out that despite the delicate nature of the peace negotiations and civilian/military interaction today, there is freedom of reportage. "We are now at a critical point in the peace process. At this stage, it would be easy for us to demand the same blind support that was given to the war reports, especially in a context of continues news reports that are both baseless and at times inflammatory'" he said. Mr.Wickremesinghe said that publishing of unsubstantiated news, as well as the deliberate misrepresentation of issues could undoubtedly cause serious damage to the peace process. "The balance between seeking greater media freedom, and ensuring that those who wish to oppose the peace process do not misrepresent the government is a challenge which has to be faced by both the government and the media. Neither of us can shy away from this responsibility," he stressed. He also said that the government has agreed to support the establishment of the Sri Lanka Press Institute and the Press Complaints Commission. "Concurrently we plan to introduce legislation to repeal the law that established the government appointed Press Council." The Prime Minister also spoke on new legislation the government would introduce to make it more open to the people. "In its decision to be more open with the people, the most difficult task for the government is to introduce greater freedom of information. We do not expect that the public will descent in droves to scrutinize the work of government. But we do expect the media will act as intermediaries and use such freedom of information to better inform the people of the work of the government," he said. He disclosed that the government is working on the Freedom of Information Act, which once presented to Parliament, will be one of the most important pieces of reforming legislation that this government intends to pass. Among the other speakers at the conference was Fazal Qureshi, the Chief editor of Pakistan Press International (PPI) who spoke on the war against terrorism and its impact on the region. Mr.Qureshi said that the region of South Asia has a fair share of terrorism and violence related occurrences in the world. However, he said that there is a wide gulf about interpretation and definition of the word terrorism among the rebels and governments, between one government and another. He said if one took India and Pakistan as the two examples, the two countries definitions over the Kashmiri issue were very different. "While for India it is a clear cut matter of "cross border terrorism" meaning an infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan, for Pakistan India's use of military force in Kashmir is a clear example of "state terrorism" aimed at crushing a genuine freedom fight for self determination," he said. “A similar situation exists in Sri Lanka too with two different terminologies being used for use of force and violence to achieve objectives, one by the government and other by the Tamil rebels," he said. Thus when one opens a discussion on the subject of "terrorism", one is immediately confronted with the question "what actually is terrorism," he added. N.Ravi, the editor of the Hindu spoke on Branding Across Cultural and Political Frontiers: The Indian Experience. He said that in the past, few newspapers were identified as being strong in different regions, i.e the Times of India in the West, the Hindustan Times in the north, and the Hindu in the South and the Statesman in the West. An exception to this regional focus was the Indian Express which had editions published across the country. Few other newspapers ventured out of their areas of strength and it was as if there was a gentlemanly agreement to respect one another's territory and not porch," he said. N.S.D.Guthrie, Executive Editor of BBC WSTV- London spoke on the "On Line Revolution" and about how these technologies will ultimately affect the work of journalist across of the Commonwealth and the impact the internet would have on the newspapers and media outlets of tomorrow. |
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