Code of Ethics for scribes: To be or not to be?

Wednesday, 31 July 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

New journalists’ trade union kicks off broad debate about Government’s proposed Ethics Code

By Dharisha Bastians A new trade union for journalists kicked off its media rights campaign last week with a wide-ranging discourse on the Government’s proposed Media Ethics Code that has generated a controversial debate in both political and journalistic circles. During the vibrant sessions, Government officials insisted the proposed Ethics Code was not an attempt to stifle the media and would not be forced upon journalists while the Opposition and media activists remained unconvinced of the Government’s bona fides on the issue.

The Sri Lanka Journalists’ Trade Union held an interactive forum at the auditorium of the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute last Wednesday, hosting senior Media Ministry officials, Opposition politicos, good governance activists and media rights activists for a frank exchange of views on the State-imposed Code of Ethics for journalists being drafted by the Ministry. Making brief presentations at the outset of the discussion were Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, JVP trade union leader K.D. Lalkantha, good governance activist Chandra Jayaratne and Secretary to the Media Ministry Charitha Herath. Rambukwella’s stance Minister Rambukwella insisted as he has done on many previous occasions that the Government Code of Ethics was not going to be imposed on the media fraternity, but only intended to be a guideline to maintain ethical reporting standards. Charging that the Code of Ethics being drafted by his Ministry had been misunderstood and misinterpreted, Minister Rambukwella pledged that the Government would not be bringing new laws to govern the conduct of the media. “The word ethics has been misunderstood,” Rambukwella said. He added that when the issue of the Ethics Code first came up with President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a breakfast meeting with the editors, no editor had raised any objections. “Only politicians and other groups are making a big deal of it,” the Minister scoffed. Rambukwella said that although he had decided to attend the forum because he was invited, in fact there was nothing in the proposed Ethics Code for the media to be highlighted or make an issue out of. “The reason for proposing this code is that when people are being criticised unfairly or mud is being slung at individuals or groups, there is no way to address those problems,” the Minister said, admitting that even State media had carried out unfair campaigns of this nature in the past. “There is no way to rectify this and so we felt something like this was needed and in fact, still feel it is needed. But nowhere have we claimed this would be an imposition,” he said. Options

Secretary to Minister Rambukwella’s Ministry Charitha Herath told the gathering that mass media was growing exponentially and was too broad to box in. He explained that there were three platforms accepted in the world to govern the conduct of media, namely noncompliance frameworks or ethics models, training and regulations. “There are already regulations governing the media – this country has a Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, a Sri Lanka Rupavahini Act and a Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Act,” Herath said. The Secretary claimed the media Ethics Code was just an attempt by the Government to put forward its own views on journalist conduct. “I was given a period of three months by Parliament to formulate this code,” he explained. Herath said it was his personal opinion that regulation had not worked and there was great resistance to a noncompliance framework such as a Code of Ethics. “The option left to us then is training and we will have to see if this will work, where other things have failed,” he explained. Striking a philosophical note, Herath said that Sri Lankan society was either too old or too young for a Media Ethics Code. Herath was not sure which. Good Governance Activist and Chartered Accountant Chandra Jayaratne raised issues about the credibility and ethics of those attempting to introduce this code of conduct for journalists. “Are they truly credible? Do they have a right to introduce an Ethics Code?” he queried. Lalkantha lashes out Fiery JVP member and trade unionist K.D. Lalkantha took his time getting to the point, first choosing to address the grave injustices being perpetrated on the citizenry by the incumbent Government. This Government’s economic policies were based on ‘dhada-badhu-naya’ Lalkantha said, explaining that the regime was excessively taxing the citizens and borrowing frivolously because it was short of funds. “The people’s electricity tariffs have gone up absurdly, but ask Minister Rambukwella how much his electricity bill is and who pays that,” he charged. The JVP Member said that over the years the Government had killed and assaulted and intimidated media personnel into submission and wherever possible had moved to financially control the independent media with buyouts. “This Media Ethics Code is the Government’s attempt to control the media that has refused to cow down to these brutal attacks on the free press,” he said. This was the Government’s way of grasping at straws to control the media that still remains outside its ambit, the JVP trade unionist said. “The Greek Government has recently dissolved its Media Ministry; I hope to see a day in this country when that will happen. The State has no role in governing the media,” he charged. Panel discussion Once head table presentations were over, the SLJTU invited the panellists to take their seats below the stage, in order to engage in a frank exchange of ideas with the audience on an equal platform. Secretary of the Free Media Movement Sunil Jayasekera questioned why Parliament had ordered the drafting of an Ethics Code. “I don’t want to have to raise the issue here of the composition or the purity of this current Parliament,” he said, adding that there was no reason for the Government to propose such a code when there were outstanding issues facing the media fraternity that needed to be tackled. Minister Rambukwella who spoke during the interaction with the audience expressed disappointment that the discussion at the forum had taken a decidedly political turn. “I was told to come here to discuss the Ethics Code. If this was to be a discussion on politics and attacks on the Government, I am more than willing to have that conversation, but certainly not here,” he charged, addressing his response to Lalkantha. Referring to comments made by Jayaratne, the Minister said that his waiving of a television broadcasting licence belonging to the TNL network in Parliament had been gravely misunderstood. “When I said this piece of paper could be cancelled anytime, what I meant was that the entire licence issuing process had to be formalised and not be so temporary and ad hoc,” the Minister explained, saying that all broadcasting licences currently issued were temporary ones. “This is what I mean, it should not be possible to withdraw a licence on the whim of a Minister, there must be a formal process and we have to determine that process,” he said. SLJTU President Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema agreed with the Minister’s sentiments, saying that while the press corps already had a self-governing mechanism and a press complaints mechanism to rectify reporting errors, such a system did not exist for the electronic media. “So a decision needs to be made on how a broadcaster deals with this, whether they are issued a warning first, one warning or several or whether licences are cancelled immediately, etc.,” she said. She also invited TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran to speak on the situation of journalists working in the formerly embattled regions of the north, where attacks on the independent media were constant even four years after the end of the conflict. “The only time we hear about our colleagues in the north is when they are being attacked or their presses are being burnt,” Abeywickrema said. Sumanthiran’s scathing revelation The TNA National List Legislator who addressed the crowd stole the show with a scathing revelation about the state of the media in Sri Lanka. Charging that private media was being forced to take a pro-Government stance in order to survive financially, Sumanthiran said that the Uthayan’s sister paper published in the south had begun to attack the TNA, despite being owned by a TNA MP. Pointing to the cartoonists in the audience among the journalists present, the TNA MP said political cartoons appeared in the newspapers about every politician and one could find many cartoons about the President in any newspaper. “But I have never seen a single political cartoon about this country’s Defence Secretary,” he charged. “Show me one cartoonist here who will dare to cross that line and I will tell you the state of press freedom in this country today,” Sumanthiran concluded.