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Body to hear public complaints against Press

The Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, the Editors’ Guild of Sri lanka and the Free Media Movement have jointly set up a Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCC) which will hear complaints by the public against any wrongful commissions or omissions on the part of newspapers published in the country.

The PCC is a legal entity that has been established under the Companies Act, and will have a 11-member Council, independent of the three media organisations, that will engage in Dispute Resolution between the public and the press.

This Council of the PCC will also be responsible for the implementation and interpretation of the Code of Professional Practice (Code of Ethics ) of the Editors Guild and adopted by the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), the umbrella body of the three media organisations.

The 11-members of the PCC Council will be as follows;

Chairman: Sam Wijesinha, former Secretary-General of Parliament and former Ombudsman.

Five Councillors representing Civil Society: Devanesan Nesiah, member of the Public Service Commission and former Government Agent, Jaffna; Swarna Jayaweera, ex-Professor of Sociology, University of Colombo and member of the Womens' Research Centre; Javid Yusuf, former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and former Principal, Zahira College; Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, film director; and Lucille Wijewardene, chartered accountant.

Five Councillors representing the Press: Siri Ranasinghe, President of the Editors Guild and editor, Lankadeepa; G. S. Perera, former editor, Dinamina and former member of the Press Council; P. Balasingham, deputy editor, Daily News; Mallika Wanigasundera, free lance journalist, and Dian Schoorman, Senior Representative, Reuters (Sri Lanka) Ltd.,

The Council of the PCC will be engaged in conciliation, mediation or arbitration between the public and the press and it will be enpowered to enforce its decisions through Courts under provisions of the Arbitration Act in the event of non-compliance by the press.

The Office of the PCC will be situated at Independence Square, Colombo and the public will be notified shortly of a date when the Council will begin accepting complaints from the public, according to Ranjit Wijewardene, Chairman,Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka.

Commonwealth’s biggest press show begins today in Kandy

The Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) will hold its biennial conference of publishers and editors starting today with a forum at the Mahaweli Reach Hotel in Kandy.

Who’s who at CPU big show

DON MCKINNON was elected Commonwealth Secretary-General at the November 1999 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Durban, South Africa.
He assumed office on 1 April 2000. This appointment follows a long and distinguished political career in New Zealand. Since being elected to Parliament in 1978, Mr McKinnon was New Zealand's longest serving Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has held a number of senior posts within the government, including Deputy Prime Minister (1990 to 1996), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (1990-1999) and Leader of the House of Representatives (1992-1996). He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Commerce from Lincoln University in 1999 and received the New Zealand 1990 Commemorative Medal.

In July 2002, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the four Universities of Manchester. He holds two honorary Matai (chiefly) titles from Samoa.

BETTY BOOTHROYD was Speaker of the House of Commons from April 1992 to October 2000, the first woman to be elected to the Speaker's Chair in the 700 years of the British Parliament.

She was also the first to come from the Opposition benches since 1835, achievement made possible by her supporters in every party in the House. She was awarded a life the peerage on her retirement and sits in the House of Lords as an independent Cross Bencher.

DATO' PARAM CUMARASWAMY is a Barrister-at-Law at the Inner Temple, London and Advocate and Solicitor, Malaya & Singapore. Since 1967 has been practicing law in Kuala Lumpur. A former Chairman of the Bar Council of Malaysia, his distinguished career has seen him hold rank in almost every major international legal and human rights bodies. In 1994 he was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

TREVOR NCUBE began his career as a teacher but soon moved to journalism when he became Assistant Editor of the Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe in 1989.

He became Executive Editor of the Gazette in 1991 until he left to become one of the founders and shareholders in the Zimbabwe Independent and Standard in May 1996. In September 2000, he became Publisher and Chief Executive of the Zimbabwe Independent and Standard which he remains to this day. In 2002, he expanded into South Africa when he became Chief Executive of M&G Media who publish the Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg.

KULDIP NAYAR is one of the most renowned Indian journalists. Also an lawyer, author, MP and human rights activist, his illustrious career has spanned five decades during which he has worked for most of the influential newspapers and news agencies in India. He was also a distinguished diplomat and following his appointment as High Commissioner to London, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha of the Indian Parliament in August 1997. Widely known as an author since 1969, his books have concentrated on national and international affairs.

N RAVI is the Editor of The Hindu, one of India's leading English-language daily newspapers with a circulation of 900,000.

He holds a Master's degree in economics and a degree in law from Madras University and has been a journalist with The Hindu since 1972. He is the recipient of several academic awards and was a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program in the spring of 2000. In his career as a journalist, he served as correspondent, assistant editor, leader writer, Washington Correspondent (1978-80), deputy editor and associate editor before taking over as Editor in 1991. He was the Chairman of the Press Trust of India, India's largest news agency, in 1999-2000 and is now a Director of PTI. He is a member of the executive committee of the Editors Guild, and of other professional organizations including the International Press Institute and the World Association of Newspapers.

MARK TULLY is a widely renowned write and journalist. Born in Calcutta, he went to university in England where he graduated with an MA in History & Theology from Trinity Hall, Cambridge before joining the BBC in the early 1960s. For thirty years, Mark Tully was the voice of the BBC from India. During that time he wrote, commented and broadcast widely. Since 1994, he has been a freelance broadcaster and writer and continued to publish highly regarded books on the sub-Continent. He is the recipient of many academic honours and lives between India and the UK.

Mass Comunication Minister Imtiaz Bakeer- Markar will open the conference.

CPU Chief Lindsay Ross will speak on behalf of the CPU and Island Editor Gamini Weerakoon will speak on behalf of the Editors Guild at the opening.

The CPU represents more than 500 newspapers from the British Commonwealth.

Some 175 foreign delegates are due to attend these sessions which are held in association with the Newspaper Society and the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will declare open the main conference on Tuesday, while the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon will participate at the closing ceremony next Friday at the Trans Asia Hotel in Colombo.Some of the issues to be discussed at these sessions would include 'Sri Lanka's Peace Process' on which topic the Government's chief negotiator Prof. G.L. Peiris would address the delegates and the session on 'War against Terrorism' would be chaired by former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar at which the Executive Managing Editor of the Times of India Dilip Padgoankar and the Chief Executive of the Dawn Group in Pakistan, Hameed Haroon will be the speakers.

The keynote address will be delivered by the well-known former BBC correspondent in New Delhi Sir Mark Tully.

Indian MP and journalist Kuldip Nayar will speak on 'Rising Intolerance towards Journalists" while UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of the Judiciary Dato Param Coomaraswamy will speak on 'The role of an independent judiciary in maintaining press freedom'.

A few technical sessions will also take place on the need for self-regulation, the newspaper and the law, advertising, marketing and publishing and on the electronic revolution.

Among the subjects to be discussed at the Forum in Kandy are ‘Does an ethnic divide mean a media divide? Editor-in-Chief, The Daily Trust, Nigeria Kabiru Yusuf, will speak on 'Ethnicity - the bane of the human society?', while Managing Editor, The New Straits Times, Malaysia, Rose Ismail, will make an address on 'The reporting of Islamic issues and educating readers on such matters'.

Other subjects to be discussed are ‘Conflict and post-conflict - The Role of the media’

Editor-in-Chief, Thinakkural, Sri Lanka, A. Sivanesaselvan will speak on 'Re-educating the public', Deputy Editor, The Hindu, Madras, Mukund Padmanabhan, will deliver an address on 'Reporting conflict: Truth versus public interest' while Defence Analyst, UK Colonel Mike Dewar, will discuss 'Options for war in Iraq: Implications for the media'.
Other addresses to be made included 'The Curse of Spin' by Peter Preston, The Guardian, UK; 'Defining a falsehood in journalism - when is a falsehood a criminal offence?' Bill Saidi, Managing Editor, Daily News, Zimbabwe; 'The limits of press freedom in Pakistan', RashedRahman, Editor, The Frontier Post, Pakistan; 'War or Peace - Media at the Crossroads' Iqbal Athas, Consultant Editor, The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka and 'Freedom and responsibility: A quick guide to self-regulation of the press' Ian Beales, Consultant to the Press Complaints Commission, UK.

The subject of Human Rights - Especially related to Women & Children is also to be discussed by Sue Lloyd Roberts, Special BBC Correspondent and Ramani Muttetuwegama, Senior Consultant, Law & Society Trust, Sri Lanka.

Editors oppose bribery job for ex-judge

The Editors Guild of Sri Lanka has objected to the nomination of retired Justice Upali de Z. Gunawardene to the Permanent Commission to Investigate Complaints of Bribery or Corruption on the grounds that the retired judge has asked for, and accepted, special favours from a complainant in a case he heard.

In a formal complaint to The Constitutional Council, The Guild has cited the fact that retired Justice Upali de Z. Gunawardene had heard the criminal defamation trial of the Editor of The Sunday Times upon a complaint by President Chandrika Kumaratunga from 1996-1997, proceeded to convict the Editor (the conviction was subsequently set aside by the Supreme Court), after which he was given a promotion to the Court of Appeal, and upon retirement from the Judiciary in 2002, he asked for and accepted a special favour granted by the same President Kumaratunga to practice at the Bar, a licence not given to any other appellate court judge in the history of the judiciary of Sri Lanka.

In the circumstances, The Editors Guild has stated that the impartiality of retired Justice Upali de Z. Gunawardene is in question and that he is, therefore, not a fit and proper person to hold office as commissioner of an independent tribunal such as the Commission to Investigate Complaints of Bribery or Corruption.

The Editors Guild also lodged its protest with regard to what it sees as an attempt by the Secretary of The Constitutional Council to surreptitiously have the nomination of retired Justice Upali de Z. Gunawardene approved without giving the public sufficient notice to raise objections to such nomination. The Guild has pointed out that The Constitutional Council has, in terms of Section 41(e) (6) of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution agreed to give the public two weeks time to object to any of its nominations. This procedural requirement has been overlooked by the Secretary.

In the circumstances, The Guild believes that the conduct of the Secretary was mala fide and against the public interest, and has called for The Constitutional Council to hold an inquiry into the matter; to take disciplinary action against the Secretary, and to make its determination known to the public.

LTTE delegation's return journey triggers tension

The six member LTTE team's return to Colombo enroute to Wanni was marked by some tense moments.

A Sri Lanka Air force helicopter had been lined up to fly them to Kilinochchi on February 13 morning. However they wanted this delayed until 2 p.m.

Officials of the Norwegian Embassy found it difficult to interfere with the already arranged SLAF schedules. The impasse The Sunday Times learns, was sorted out only after orders were sent out by UNF leaders to local officials dealing with travel arrangements.

A second helicopter was also made available to the delegation to carry 23 sealed packages the LTTE delegation had brought along. Since the LTTE delegation had arrived through the green channel, customs had cleared their baggage. This was after a senior Airport official helped them. However, the packages were not opened and examined.

The close protection security for the LTTE, which was earlier handled by army commandos, has now been handed over to an Air Force team. They carried out their tasks when the delegation returned to Colombo.

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