Editorial

8th June 1997

Anniversary appeal

The Sunday Times, flagship of Wijeya Newspapers, reaches a milestone today after ten years of people service during which we often had to ride storms and against the tide.

On our tenth birthday today, we are proud to say row we were not and will never be anybody’s lap dog, specially not of any party politician. Instead, we have readily, willingly and ably been the watchdog mainly of the people who had little or no voice. The silent majority, if one may say, those who are the nucleus of our nation.

An anniversary is a time not just for celebration but for recommitment to the vision and goals with which we began on June 7,1987. So today, as we say a heart-felt thank you to you, our readers, and to all the people for supporting and sustaining our cause which is indeed your cause, we also renew our pledge to uphold the highest principles of journalism and the highest interest of our country in what we say and do.

We have gone through hell and high water in these ten tumultuous years which have seen four all powerful executive presidents come and three go. We are still too close to history to judge them and their contribution to the freedom of information, but elsewhere, in our anniversary special, we have recorded for posterity some of the events that involved the inevitable if not avoidable brushes between the executive and the fourth estate. At times we may disagree with what others say, but we will give them the right to say it. It is not free thought for only those who agree with us, but even freedom for the thought we hate that gives the concept its most enduring value, as the Supreme Court recently stated in a historic judgment on the disgraced broadcasting authority bill.

We recommit ourselves to be a channel through which you receive the information, education or awareness and entertainment you want and should have. We will, to the best of our ability, maintain a balance as we have done and will do in our news or political coverage and commentaries. That area of politics is the delicate, dicey or sometimes dangerous dimension where during the past ten years we have faced many trials and tribulations. We firmly believe in the principle that William Randolf Hearst pioneered and fostered: ‘News is some thing that some one wants suppressed. All the rest is advertising.’

In carrying out this principle, we have done as best as we possibly could have done in the past ten years. We will continue to do so, in the years ahead even if some of our friends in politics have become foes now because we describe self-interest as self-interest without giving it the cloak of public service or patriotism. We understand that in politics and for politicians there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests. But on our part, we wish to state on this anniversary that while we may have many opponents and antagonists, we do not consider them as enemies —with malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right.

In our criticism, we have challenged ideas and policies but never descended to the level of character assassination or personal abuse. We may have erred, and so many times too. But that is only because we are human.

Our country is embroiled in its biggest ever crisis and a tryst with destiny today. The north-east conflict is raging, the economy is still limping and the social order still has a monstrous gap with 30 percent of our people — about 5 million — living in poverty. It is a time when we need not a confrontation but compromise and cooperation for the highest good of all our people. Unfortunately, this government which promised so much in terms of media freedom is on a collision course with the independent media.

We said it before and we say it again on this anniversary. When we have investigated and exposed misdeeds of administrations past and present it was not because we love governments any less but because we love the country and her people more. We love this country as much as any one else. And so, on this tenth anniversary of ours, we call upon those in office to end this policy of confrontation with the media and let us cooperate for the common good of all our peoples.

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