Former Secretary General of Parliament and the country’s first Ombudsman, Sam Wijesinha was unanimously re-elected as Chairman of the Dispute Resolution Council (DRC) of the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL) at a special general meeting of the Commission on Tuesday.
Mr. Wijesinha has been Chairman of the DRC since its inception in 2003.

Sam Wijesinha

The DRC of the PCCSL is responsible for hearing and arbitrating on disputes between readers and newspapers subscribing to the PCCSL which are not resolved by way of conciliation or mediation of the PCCSL Secretariat. It comprises five members representing the press and five members who are not members of the press with the Chairman giving the non-press representation a majority.

The PCCSL is the self-regulatory mechanism introduced by the newspaper industry in 2003 in place of the Press Council which was a statutory body that had powers to fine and send journalists to jail. It is the implementing arm of the Code of Professional Practice of The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka.

Readers who have grievances against any newspaper are invited to first take up the matter with the editor of the newspaper concerned, but if no remedial action is taken they can complain to the PCCSL. The entire process is free of charge.

Since 2003, the PCCSL has entertained 792 complaints, a release from the PCCSL said. The PCCSL is supported by the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, the Free Media Movement, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association and has the backing of the South Asia Free Media Association, the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance, the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum and the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union.