A move to gag press, say Sri Lankan media

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: The main media organisations in Sri Lanka have urged the government not to re-establish Press Council with powers to fine and imprison print journalists and argued that self-regulation, introduced six years ago, is working.

Seven media bodies, headed by the Editors’ Guild, have written to President Mahinda Rajapaksa saying media culture should not be based on charging, fining and jailing journalists.

The Council was reactivated earlier this month by the government. Staffed with government appointees, it adjudicates complaints against newspapers and has the power to imprison and fine journalists. When contacted by the BBC, the Media Minister declined comment on the matter.
‘Society going backwards’

In an editorial, the Daily Mirror said re-activation of the Press Council was a sign of a society going backwards. “Given the manner [in which] the government moved to re-activate the Press Council Act — weeks after the military victory over the LTTE — tempted many individuals and groups to add motives to the statements made by certain powerful individuals, days into the war victory”.

“One wonders whether the Executive has come under the pressure mounted by those individuals to gag the press that behaved in a quite responsible manner during the war. True there were a couple of bad eggs but an overwhelming majority of newspapers especially the independent ones adopted a high degree of self-censorship during the crucial phase of history”.

“Even a cursory glance at Sections 12, 15, 16 and 31 would make one realise the dangers that the democracy of this country would face in the event of full implementation of these sections which remained rather dormant ever since the introduction of the Press Council Act in 1973,” it said.

Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara on Friday remarked in Parliament that the earlier decision of the parliamentarians to repeal laws necessary to take punitive action against misbehaving journalists had been “one of the most foolish moves”.

He said their decision to relinquish parliamentary powers had been wrong and it had caused an erosion of the supreme powers of the House. The Speaker made this observation during a cross-talk triggered by a statement by Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena.

The Minister complained that one newspaper had erroneously quoted him as saying that the 13th Amendment would be implemented only after a referendum.

Separately, NGO Internews reported that more than 9,000 elders had applied for release from camps for war displaced.

The government has taken steps to release those who are over 60 years of age from Vavuniya camps.

- http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/27/stories/2009062754581100.htm

Dealing with media: Speaker regrets repeal of draconian laws

by Saman Indrajith

Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara yesterday said Parliamentarians’ decision to repeal laws necessary to take punitive action against misbehaving journalists had been one of the most foolish moves on their part.

He said that their decision to relinquish parliamentary powers had been wrong and it had caused an erosion of the supreme powers of the House.

The Speaker made this observation during a cross-talk triggered by a statement by Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena.

Abeywardena said that a Sinhala language newspaper published by a government controlled media institution had misreported what he had said at a press conference the previous day.

He said that the paper had erroneously reported that the 13th Amendment would be implemented only after a referendum.

JVP Parliamentary Group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the Minister was using the time allocated for parliamentary proceedings to correct a news item published by a media institution that came under the purview of the minister himself.

MP Dissanayake: If the minister wants to correct the said new item, he should contact the editor of that paper and request a correction. Or, he could have called a separate press conference to clarify his position. This House is not the place for that. If a newspaper had misreported what he had said in the House, it could have been raised here. This should not be allowed as it would set a bad precedent. What would have happened if all 110 ministers wanted to use time allocated for proceedings to clarify their positions on various matters?

If Yapa is allowed to clarify his position, we, too, should be allowed to clarify our position with regard to misreporting of JVP press conferences.

Speaker: “He made this statement as a minister. Only ministers are allowed to make ministerial statements”.

MP Dissanayake: “Then all these 110 ministers will do the same.”

Kurunegala District UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera: “Since a government controlled newspaper had carried the news item in question the minister could have given a telephone call to the editor or sent a white van to abduct the journalist who had misreported the minister.”

JVP MP Dissanayake: “Then we should summon the journalist”.

Speaker Lokubandara: “We could have done that, had there been legal provisions to do that. But we had amended them”.

“There were occasions when journalists were summoned and fined in Parliament. We do not have such powers now”.

MP Dissanayake: “Who repealed them?”

Speaker: “That was done when you were in power during Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s tenure as President.”

MP Dissanayake: “No, that was done by UNP government. You, too, were a Cabinet Minister then”.

Speaker: “If we did so, it was one of the most foolish acts we committed then. If I remember right, the motion was moved by Minister G. L. Pieris.”

MP Dissanayake: “G. L. Pieris had continued as minister in every government. This was not done when the JVP was in power”.

Speaker: “This happened under President Chandrika”.

MP Dissanayake: “President was Chandrika, Prime Minister was Ranil Wickremasinghe, G. L. was Constitutional Affairs Minister, you were leader of the House, when this law was repealed”.

Speaker Lokubandara said that a motion to reduce Parliamentary powers had been brought in 1997. He ordered that the Minister should submit ministerial statements in writing.

http://www.island.lk/2009/06/26/news1.html

Gloomy predictions irk politicians

Colombo – Sri Lankan police say they have arrested an astrologer after he predicted serious political and economic problems for the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Chandrasiri Bandara, who writes an astrology column for a pro-opposition weekly, was taken in on Thursday, police spokesperson Ranjith Gunasekara said.

“The CID (Criminal Investigations Department) is questioning the astrologer,” Gunasekara said on Friday, adding that they wanted to find out the “basis” for the prediction.

The astrologer had predicted that a planetary change on October 8 will be inauspicious for parliament and the government may not be able to arrest rising living costs – a prediction already made by private economists.

The opposition United National Party condemned Bandara’s arrest and accused the government of heading towards a dictatorship.

“The crime which Chandrasiri Bandara committed was publishing an astrological column which was adverse to the government,” UNP general secretary, Tissa Attanayake, said.

Sri Lankan politicians take astrology seriously and most have their own personal seers who decide the auspicious times to launch any new programme or work.

The government’s popularity is at an all time high after the military crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels who fought for nearly four decades to carve out a separate state for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community. – AFP
Published on the Web by IOL on 2009-06-26 11:18:58

IFJ Condemns Shocking Attack on Tamil Newspapers in Sri Lanka

Media Release: Sri Lanka

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) strongly condemns an attack on three Tamil newspapers in the northern Sri Lankan city of Jaffna on June 24.

According to reports from IFJ sources, news agents for Jaffna’s three main newspapers – Uthayan, Valampuri and Thinakkural – were attacked early that morning as they began distributing the day’s editions.

In the case of Uthayan, which with its Colombo-based sister publication, Sudar Oli, been an essential link between dispersed elements of Sri Lanka’s Tamil community, the attack was particularly violent, with the delivery agents physically and verbally assaulted.

According to reliable information received, newspaper bundles were slashed with sharp weapons, doused in petrol and set afire.

The management of Uthayan immediately suspended further deliveries of the newspapers, only resuming after an hour.

A 26-year-old delivery agent of Thinakkural was reportedly assaulted at the same place in Jaffna city, and suffered serious injuries.

These latest episodes in an unrelenting campaign of violence against the media in Sri Lanka were apparently provoked by the refusal of the newspapers to publish a statement titled “Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam”, issued by a body of uncertain provenance calling itself the Tamil Front Protecting the Country.

The statement was delivered at the newspaper offices on June 23 with a demand that it be published. But according to Uthayan’s editor and publisher, it failed to meet minimum standards of authenticity, with no identifiable originating address or claim of authorship.

Early on June 25, the editor of Uthayan and Sudar Oli, Nadesapillai Vidyatharan, received an anonymous and abusive call at his Colombo home, warning him of serious consequences for his failure to publish the statement.

Vidyatharan, who was recently arrested by the Sri Lankan police and held for three months on supposed “terrorism” charges before being unconditionally discharged by the courts, received another call just over an hour later from the same number, gloating over the lesson that had supposedly been delivered.

The publisher of Uthayan, E. Saravanapavan, has reportedly brought the matter to the notice of the military commander with responsibility for Jaffna city and the local police. All relevant information has been conveyed to the authorities for appropriate action.

“The IFJ calls upon Sri Lanka’s authorities to take credible steps to see that this latest outrage is suitably dealt with and the perpetrators brought to justice,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.

“We are extremely disturbed by reports that all requests that editor Vidyatharan’s security be ensured have been disregarded.

“Without suitable measures in place to guarantee the right of the public to speak and the right of the press to report, the local elections planned for Jaffna city and Vavuniya town in the next few weeks will risk failing the test of legitimacy.”

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 122 countries