| The legality of the Press Council to inquire into complaints was raised by Counsel appearing for the Sunday Times, when a complaint made against the newspaper, by an official of the Ministry of Defence, was taken up on Tuesday.
S.L. Gunasekera, Senior Counsel for the Editor, raised a preliminary objection on the jurisdiction of the Press Council, when a complaint made by Lakshman Hulugalle against a news feature published in the Sunday Times, under the heading ‘Demolition for Development’, was taken up for argument.
Mr. Gunasekera said that the Press Council was not legally constituted under the provisions of the Press Council Law No 3 of 1973, because two members who should represent professional journalists and workers respectively were not appointed. He said in view of this, the Council was not properly constituted under the provisions of the law.
He further stated that the Council’s members were also not gazetted, and the public was unaware of the constitution of the Council’s members. He pointed out that, when a sitting judge was transferred from one jurisdiction to another, the transfer is gazetted so that the people know of his transfer.
Press Council Chairman W. Dayaratne said that the Council’s quorum was five members and it had five members appointed, except that one of the members had declined to sit in a case against the Sunday Times.
Mr. Gunasekera said that, for one thing, there were only four members hearing the complaint against the Sunday Times, so that did not constitute a quorum anyway, and that a quorum of five is only legal after the full Council has been constituted.
He said the law says that, apart from the Director of Information, who is a Government nominee, there shall be six others, two of whom shall be selected from a panel of nominees from media associations and trade unions. This process has not taken place, he said.
Following these preliminary objections, the parties agreed that written submissions be filed by June 10.
Shortly afterwards, a complaint against the Lanka newspaper was taken up. The newspaper took up the position that the Press Council was illegal. The newspaper’s Editor Chandana Sirimalwatta protested and left the inquiry without making any further submissions. |
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