The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL), the media industry’s self-regulatory body, received 176 complaints against the country’s newspapers last year (2012), according to its annual report. The report released this week says there were 87 complaints against Sinhala newspapers, 42 against the Tamil newspapers and 29 against English newspapers. The commission also received [...]

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Media’s voluntary policeman receives 176 complaints in 2012

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The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL), the media industry’s self-regulatory body, received 176 complaints against the country’s newspapers last year (2012), according to its annual report.

The report released this week says there were 87 complaints against Sinhala newspapers, 42 against the Tamil newspapers and 29 against English newspapers. The commission also received 18 complaints against the non-print media. The Sinhala language media comprise 44 per cent of the total print media publications, while the Tamil comprise 26 per cent and English 28 per cent, a PCCSL statement said.

The report which was submitted to the PCCSL’s annual general meeting on Tuesday at the SLPI auditorium states that 67 of these complaints were resolved by the end of 2012, while 17 were pending. In 45 cases, the complainant did not proceed with the complaint. Thirty nine (39) complaints were outside the mandate of the Commission, six were sub-judice and three related to non-cooperation by editors.

The report refers to PCCSL activities such as school essay competitions on media ethics, ILO-sponsored publications on human trafficking and investigative journalism, the revision of the rules and procedures of the PCCSL and seminars with the Ministry of Defence.

The report also highlights the visits of foreign media delegations from Myanmar and Vietnam to study self-regulation of the media in Sri Lanka and workshops on ethical reporting for provincial correspondents and civil society members including school principals, police officers, professionals and academics.

Lankadeepa Editor-in-Chief and Editors Guild President Siri Ranasinghe, Lakbima Consultant Editor Sundara Nihathamani de Mel and Navamani Editor and Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum President N.M. Ameen were re-elected to the Board of Directors of the PCCSL by the general membership at the AGM.

The other members of the Board re-elected were Kumar Nadesan (Chairman), Sinha Ratnatunga (Deputy Chairman), Nimal Welgama (Newspaper Society), Manik de Silva (Editors’ Guild), Sunil Jayasekera (Free Media Movement) and Seetha Ranjini.

The autonomous Dispute Resolution Council of the PCCSL which investigates reader complaints is headed by Sam Wijesinha (Chairman) and includes Devanesan Nesiah, Gnana Moonesinghe (replaced Sithie Thiruchelvam who resigned), Lucille Wijewardene, Javid Yusuf, Dion Schoorman, Siri Ranasinghe, V. Thevarajah (who replaced the late T. Sabaratnam), Pramod de Silva, Vijitha Fernando and Daya Lankapura.

The PCCSL Secretariat is headed by CEO Sukumar Rockwood and comprises two Complaints officers, Kamal Liyanarachchi (Sinhala media) and Ameen Hussain (Tamil media).

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