Editorial

26th September 1999

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Media: the way to go

Sri Lanka appears to be determined to remain a pariah state in the eyes of the world, and if there is any testimony needed about the fact, two recent events would suffice. One is the recent appointment of a Chief Justice, who runs the risk of being shunned by the world community of Judges after the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of the Judiciary makes his report official. ( That event is imminent.) The other is the indication by the world media community and Human Rights Watchdog groups that the laws of Criminal Defamation are hopelessly obsolete.

Chief among these groups were Article 19 which champions the right to freedom of expression around the world, and the Commonwealth Press Union which is a media watchdog group of considerable global clout. Both groups participated, along with local media organisations, in a colloquium on Criminal Defamation and Freedom of Expression held in Colombo a week back.

The words used by Malcolm Smart, the Deputy Director General of Article 19, to describe the consensus reached on criminal defamation (“Criminal Defamation is out – out – out”) was representative of the indignation felt by the conferees about the fact that Criminal Defamation still lingers on in some countries. That ours is one of them, shows clearly that the government is dangerously flirting with a pariah status while espousing the cause of media freedom with a certain brazen brand of hypocrisy that is galling to begin with.

Though Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera almost got carried away with quotes on freedom of expression from probably every book he could get his hands on, at the opening ceremony of the colloquium, his slip was showing nevertheless at a glaring angle. The government it appears has irrationally avoided a private members’ motion on vital media issues such as Criminal Defamation, the laws of parliamentary privilege and sub - judice and the introduction of a Freedom of Information Act showing that the state’s policy makers have no intention of putting its money where its mouth is. First, the government made use of an opinion that was offered propitiously, and dare we say not accidentally, by the then Attorney General said Sarath N. Silva. The ex-Attorney General said that a debate on criminal defamation may be sub judice because several criminal defamation suits are now pending.

It’s a chicken and egg argument (after all, sub judice is one of the issues that need to be debated ) which should not have deterred the government from debating the private members’ motion if it professes to be a champion of the free press. It seems the government has now played itself into a corner, because the state has shown a stubborn unwillingness to rise to the spirit that the media has collectively mustered.

The media has indeed shown a sense of responsibility in responding to the international imperative of outlawing criminal defamation by coming up with the very healthy and viable alternative of self regulation.

The local media is cognisant that the relevant tendency is for mechanisms that implement a code of ethics, or a code of professional practise for journalists. Media groups like the Newspaper Society, the Editors’ Guild and the Free Media Movement are now in the process of evolving just such a mechanism for Sri Lanka.

In an era in which professional cricketers, leave alone doctors, lawyers and other professionals are required to adhere to a code of conduct, there is no reason for journalists to eschew the practice of living by a self regulatory code. Such a code will be vastly appreciated by the public, for the fact that it comes from within the industry, and comes accompanied with the threat of peer pressure and industry sanction for any media organisations which defy their own code.

That’s the “way to go’’ to use the colloquialism that is probably apt after the colloquium is over .

But, the government media policy of one step forward two steps back and waltz around the truth, has made it look as if the government is squarely and unfortunately in contrast to this trend.

Political Column

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