Press freedom’s success story

While appreciating the government's difficulty in trying to wean away one of the world's most brutally fascist terrorist organisations from war, and though there were celebration yesterday on the completion of one year without hostilities, it is clear all is not well in the frontlines. Jaffna and Trincomalee faced an LTTE-sponsored hartal. Res ipsa loquito - the facts speak for themselves.

The Minister of Defence has in the meantime survived the opposition's no confidence motion, no doubt with the votes of Tamil parties controlled by the LTTE.

The Minister's seeming indifference to the affairs of State is deceptive of his true stature as a person who is astute and knows the ways of the world. All we want him to do is to be more assertive as the nation's Defence Minister and key player vis-a-vis the LTTE. His contribution is needed to ensure the security of the State and her people, in the still very likely event that the LTTE kicks the negotiating table to return to its former ways.

The very fact that this and other independent newspapers have been criticising government on our apprehensions about aspects of the peace process, and that the government has not taken any of us to courts or bashed our heads in, is a measure of the creditable aspect of this government in matters that relate to press freedom.

It is still not to say that even this government has a totally clean sheet on this score. There was the case of some 'friendly persuasion' to stop a statement from the Mahanakyake Theras very early in the quest to get the LTTE to the negotiating table. Then there are the cases of the visa termination of a questionable foreign correspondent, and the occasional verbal barrage against a defence correspondent.

But to give credit where it's due, the government may have mishandled the peace process at times, and mishandled the economy, but good marks need to be given for the way it handled the press.

A free press is one of the pillars that sustain advanced liberal democracies anywhere in the world. The draconian and archaic criminal defamation laws which were used by the despotic leaders of the last government were repealed unanimously by an enlightened parliament less than a year ago.

Only the I's need to be dotted and the T's crossed from a Freedom of Information Act that will open government to greater scrutiny and make citizens aware of the workings of government. A self-regulatory Press Complaints Commission has just been set up by the industry based on a code of ethics, drafted by practitioners. There is a College of Journalism in the offing.

The Commonwealth Press Union was very much in the forefront of the fightback of the Sri Lankan media when it challenged the former government which was kicking the press around. The Sri Lankan press must salute that organisation of over 500 newspapers throughout the 54 member grouping, for its moral and actual support during those periods of distress.

Having savoured victory from these battles, the Sri Lankan press has now the onerous responsibility of promoting media freedom and social responsibility as they pledged to do in 1998 under what was called the Colombo Declaration , and we are happy that the formation of the Sri Lanka Press Institute by the three main unions of the profession, the Newspaper Society of the Publishers, the Editors' Guild and the Free Media Movement has resulted in this body assuming that responsibility for the betterment of what has been called the fourth estate. Thereby, we have become not only, in a sense, a success story, but a beacon of hope for others in the Commonwealth, who are undergoing trying times the independent journalists of this country underwent yesteryear.

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