Following is the statement issued by the Royal College Union (RCU) Honorary Secretary Aruna Samarajewa in response to what it alleged as “misleading allegations” regarding Royal College, Colombo published in the Daily FT. The letter cum statement has been copied to Royal College Principal Thilak Waththuhewa and Royal College Rugby Head Coach Dushanth Lewke.

 The Royal College Union wishes to address and respond to the most egregious, false and mala fide conduct of the Daily Financial Times, in matters relating to Royal College, Colombo. To our grievous concern and continuing amazement, the Daily FT has deliberately indulged, in continuously publishing, in a methodically pervasive manner, a series of articles, purporting to relate to Royal College, which contain strategically aimed, utterly preposterous and unscrupulously scandalous, allegations against the school.

It is abundantly clear from the sheer scale, nature, breadth and intensity, of the most palpable virulence of your content and the clear malice aforethought, that there is a most venomous, malevolent agenda that is actuating and driving this forward.

Your most misplaced and unwarrantedly wanton action, has been exacerbated and compounded, by the fact that this most discernible, ill willed and malice driven, sustained campaign against Royal College, has been resorted to, without any responsible or meaningful manner of reporting, in as much as there has been no prior clarification or verification of the truth or the accuracy of the allegations contained in your articles, sought from the school or its authorities, prior to recklessly publishing the same. 

The basic safeguard of prior cross reference or prior verification, that any reasonable person would deem, as being imperatively expected and expedient, from any responsible print media institution, has been recklessly suppressed and defeated.

This pervasive and most toxic campaign, has most obviously, strategically served, certain persons who are obviously ill motivated against the school, very effectively, as your printed media content, has caused very severe and irreversible damage to the reputation of the school, its principal, the teaching staff, and its other, highly responsible stakeholders, and indeed to its entire student population, as well as to the integrity of the governance of the school, upon which Royal College has placed a very important premium, both historically, as well as contemporaneously as well.

This sinisterly engineered, Machiavellian campaign, does not seem to find any peace or rest, until it has most unfairly and unethically tarnished and destroyed the reputation of Royal College and its officials, beyond redemption.

Therefore, we deem it rightful to determine for ourselves, despite our hitherto, dignified equanimity and patience, that enough is enough.

Hence, strictly without any prejudice whatsoever, to any and every form of right/s that the school and its stakeholders shall deem appropriate to vigorously exercise, advance, vindicate and protect hereinafter going forward, according to law, against the heinous, uncorroborated action on your part, please be advised that we do hereby NOW call upon you, the Daily FT, to exercise due and meticulous caution, in the future, in any reporting you may choose to indulge in, and towards that, to be pleased to duly ascertain the truth of facts, in a biIateral process of prior referencing/counter-referencing, prior to publishing any adverse content pertaining to Royal College, particularly where the articles seek to make bogus and unfounded allegations against the school.

Suffice to state however, that this will not redeem the unpardonably wrongful action and far reaching damage that you have already perpetrated against the school and which the school and its authorities have unfairly been forced to incur and sustain.

Surely Sirs, we all know that notwithstanding the three traditional pillars of democracy, as enunciated by Sir Edmund Burke, (this was interestingly re-visited later by Thomas Carlyle), to recognise the media as being the 4th Estate and the 4th pillar of democracy. It is apposite to state that this status accorded to the media, whilst cherished, comes at the due price of being highly responsible, accountable and credible.

It is most true that with great power comes even greater responsibility. These are fundamental, universal commitments and obligations to be duly observed, by a responsible media.

These much-cherished ideals, must not be forgotten and indeed, it cannot be allowed to be forgotten, within the context of a system based on basic tenets of Democracy, Good Governance and the Rule of Law.

These democratic imperatives and the dictates of the law, surely do not allow one single, Outlier media institution, to make a mockery of the basic rights and interests of those it chooses most arbitrarily, to make its victims.

In is in this context, that we wish to particularly express our very deep concern regarding the following articles published by the Daily FT, namely:

1. The article published on the 1 October 2024, allegedly written by a “group of concerned parents”, whereby a series of unfounded and baseless allegations contained in an anonymous letter had been published, without any attempt by you to seek clarifications or comments from the school authorities or any of the persons referred to in the said anonymous letter. (See https://www.ft.lk/sports/Parents-demand-removal-of-Royal-College-Rugby-Head-Coach/23-767379O) This letter has obviously been written by a disgruntled person or persons(s) or by persons who are maliciously attempting to bring disrepute to Royal College, Royal College Rugby, its head coach Mr Lewke and the Rugby management committee of Royal College. It is astounding that a media institution would publish an anonymous letter without even having the basic decency to seek any comments or clarifications from the persons against whom extremely serious (albeit, false) statements have been levelled. It also has not taken the effort to verify the authenticity of the author of the Letter on which the Daily FT has based its publication. It is needless to say that this article has caused significant reputational damage to both the School and its Head Rugby Coach Mr. Lewke. We are firmly of the view that this is as a result of irresponsible journalism by the Daily FT.

2. The article published on the 4th of October 2024, by one Earle Amarasekera (see https://www.ft.lk/sports/That-revered-game-of-rugby-no-more/23-767549), makes unfounded accusations against Royal College and its rugby team, with regard to an incident that took place a few months ago involving a school rugby player and his fellow classmate.

First, it is important to clarify the context of the incident. The altercation in question was a personal dispute between two classmates and had no connection whatsoever to Royal College Rugby. While it is true that the boy involved in the assault is a rugby player, this matter does not, in any manner, implicate the sport or the school’s rugby team.

The incident, which stemmed from verbal accusations between the two students, escalated when the rugby player assaulted his classmate. Royal College immediately took action, conducting an inquiry through the college’s discipline committee. As a result, the rugby player was suspended from all forms of sports, until further notice.

This decision was made with utmost seriousness, as such behaviour is not tolerated in Royal College, and is antithetic to the traits of sportsmanship that Royal College protects, promotes and instils in its students, throughout all fields of sports in the school. The matter was subsequently handled by the police, after the victim’s parents reported the incident. The police, after conducting their investigation, advised both parties to come to a settlement. It is crucial to note that, at no point, was the student allowed to return to sports until the affected party agreed to pardon him.

The school authorities ensured that the rugby player underwent counselling and took full responsibility to guide him towards better behaviour. Even when the rugby season commenced, the boy was not permitted to participate in practices. Only after the affected party generously agreed to a settlement, and with assurances that such incidents would not be repeated, was the student allowed to resume playing rugby.

This decision came with strict conditions and a stern warning from the Principal and school authorities. Since then, the student has maintained good conduct throughout the season.

We categorically deny the allegations made in the Daily FT article, which suggest any form of bias or influence by the police towards Royal College. The actions taken by the school and law enforcement were entirely impartial and based on established procedures, without favour or bias. We thank the student and his family for their cooperation and extend our appreciation to all those who helped resolve this matter with a sense of fairness and dignity.

3. The article published on the 9 October 2024, with the headline “Systematic student player abuse at Royal Rugby” (See https://www.ft.lk/sports/Systematic-student-player-abuse-at-Royal-Rugby/23-767717), which allegedly reproduces a letter written by Harim Peiris, the father of the 2022 Royal College Rugby Captain, Harshith Peiris. Yet again, you have published an article without seeking or attempting to seek any clarifications, comments or responses either from Royal College, its Principal, Head Coach Mr. Lewke or the Rugby management committee. The allegations and statements contained in this letter are false, distorted and misleading. Had the Daily FT exercised any degree of responsibility or ethical conduct and sought clarifications, you would have been aware that two comprehensive inquiries were conducted into the allegations levelled in this article, by the school and the Royal College Union. Mr. Peiris was informed of the outcomes of these inquiries.

4. Several articles published by the Daily FT making several unfounded and false accusations against the School regarding inter alia, erosion of secularism, purported unauthorised collection of funds from students and parents, alleged corruption, alleged irregularities in appointing of Prefects etc. You utterly failed to obtain any comments or responses from the School authorities regarding these serious allegations, prior to publication. Every single one of these publications are false, defamatory and intended to cause reputational loss, harm and damage to Royal College, its Principal, academic staff, its alumni, the Royal College Union and all other stakeholders.

We, the Royal College Union, categorically condemn the obvious sinister campaign by the Daily FT to tarnish the good name and reputation of Royal College, its Principal, academic staff, its alumni, the Royal College Union and all other stakeholders. It is disheartening to see a prominent newspaper like Daily FT publish a series of articles based on inaccuracies and without a proper verification of facts, which is not only necessary prior making any publication, but is indeed mandated by the law, the disregard of which renders the publisher liable for violating the law and ethical norms relating to printed media.

Royal College remains committed to upholding its long-standing values of discipline, fairness, and integrity, and will always continue to silently mould the best men, with impeccable character and conscience. We expressly reserve to ourselves, the right to forward any further, supplementary or follow up article or material, arising from or relating to the issues referred to in this instance communication from us to you. We trust that you will ensure that this communication will receive equal prominence and importance in its publication.

Royal College Union details support extended to injured Rugby player Chamod Kaushalya