Spotlight on Media as P’ment takes up Press Council Act

By Ashwin Hemmathagama –

Our Lobby Correspondent

The Government’s media policy came under heavy fire by the opposition in Parliament yesterday when the ruling coalition tabled amendments to the draconian Press Council Act, saying it will do nothing to ensure the safety of media personnel and organisations with dissenting view points.

The Amendments to the Press Council Act, which were published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 1797/21 of 15 February2013 has repealed the regulation 11 in Press Council (General) Regulations of 1973 by making it mandatory for every proprietor or editor of a newspaper making application for registration or renewal to pay Rs. 5,000 for a daily newspaper, Rs. 3,000 for a weekly newspaper, and Rs. 2,000 for any other type of newspapers per annum with effect from 31 March 2013.

Opening the debate UNP MP Wijedasa Rajapakse who was also a former Chairman of the Press Council of Sri Lanka said the Council had been controversial ever since it was enacted in 1973 to target the print media in the absence of privately held electronic media.

Rajapakse said that Article 15 of the Act provided for the pursuance of matters in criminal court while Article 479 in the Penal Code covered criminal defamation made against the head of state by media personnel acting irresponsibly.

“These laws led to a lot of issues during the latter part of the 90s and were repealed by the UNF Government. In the current context, most journalists today would be in Welikada Prison if that had not been done,” he quipped.

Wijedasa said that in January 2009, the Government had provided Parliament with a report on crimes against media in response to an opposition request. He said that according to this report, during the three year period January 2006 to January 2009, nine media persons had been killed, five were kidnapped, and 27 were beaten. “This list doesn’t provide the numbers of those who fled the country failing to practice journalism,” added MP Rajapakse.

In response UPFA MP Sajin Vas Gunawardena refuted charges that the Government was controlling the media on the basis that 85% of the media companies were held by the private sector, including by Government and opposition politicians. “How can you claim media freedom is not there? Media freedom is curtailed by the respective owners who limit journalists from writing. It is not the Government.

Gunewardane said it was his opinion that the Press Council Act is not strong enough. “I believe that criminal defamation has to be included again. We have no intention to control or limit the activities of the media personnel,” he said, accusing several media companies of “taking bribes and using methods of extortion” which he said he had witnessed in the recent past.

Joining in the debate Tamil National Alliance MP M.A. Sumanthiran said the Government attacks the media is in many ways through inducement, threats, physical attacks, and by killing. He said the question was how many of these crimes against journalists and media institutions had actually been solved by law enforcement officials. “This is the litmus test to see who is behind these crimes. If the Government is not able to solve a single issue, it proves that Government is behind them,” Sumanthiran charged.

“A few years ago Sri Lanka was the second most dangerous place for journalists in the world. During the past few years the only Provincial newspaper in the Northern Sri Lanka, Uthayan newspaper had 30 incidents including the killing of its two journalists within the office premises. This year alone a distributor was attacked and a distribution center in Kilinochchi was also attacked. You can’t have armed groups doing this in a highly militarised Kilinochchi without the knowledge of the Government. Carrying out such attacks by armed thugs and not to get caught shows the involvement of the Government,” he said.

Meanwhile, UPFA Member of Parliament Arundika Fernando claimed that missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda was now living in France.