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Sri Lankan media is facing new threats to its freedom By Ameen Izzadeen 27 June 2006 FREEDOM comes with responsibility. However, we tend to believe that freedom is absolute. Didn't French political thinker Rousseau say that man was born free and everywhere he was in fetters? But we, though born free, agree that freedom needs to be curtailed for the greater good of the greater people. But the contention is as to what degree freedom should be curtailed. In a society where repression is a political reality and a tool, the struggle for freedom is a continuous battle. In Sri Lanka, there is neither absolute repression nor absolute freedom. However, our struggle for freedom gets activated when the state attempts to move towards repression. In a country that is embroiled in a separatist war for the past quarter of a century, measures aimed at curtailing freedom are quite expected. But the state should be justified in taking such measures. It cannot take cover behind national security to legitimise every repressive measure it takes to curb our freedom and hide its shame. So we are concerned today about a government decision to reactivate the Press Council that has the judicial power to penalise journalists. This council lapsed into a deafening silence after some bold media reforms were introduced in 2002 by the government of Ranil Wickremesinghe and the private media introduced a non-statutory Press Complaints Commission. Many media and civil society activists see the government move as regressive. The 2002 media reforms saw the criminal defamation law entrenched in the Penal Code and the Press Council Law being abolished. This draconian piece of legislation had been resorted to by the past governments to punish journalists. Although criminal defamation has been done away with, there are several other laws that threaten freedom of expression in Sri Lanka. Two years ago, an opposition frontline member was sent to jail for expressing his views fearlessly on an impending judgment in a politically important case. Another rights activist who raised his voice in court was also sent to jail for contempt of court. The fact that none had, in the past 50 years or so, been punished for contempt of court in most democracies including Britain, which introduced this concept to our judicial system, was lost on some of our judicial officers who resist the transformation of the judiciary into a progressive mechanism that strengthens freedom and democracy. There is also the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act, which, before it was amended in mid-1990s, gave judicial powers to parliament to try and punish journalists. Harsh criticism from local media groups and the international community compelled the then government to amend this law which made a mockery of the constitutional principle of separation of powers. The government can also muzzle the media by imposing censorship and other restrictions under emergency regulations. If the Press Council is reactivated, newspapers or journalists publishing or reporting Cabinet decisions, Cabinet documents, certain defence, security or fiscal measures, could be hauled before the council manned by political appointees with little judicial experience but more political loyalty. It is in effect the imposition of permanent censorship on the media. The government's decision smacks of political vindictiveness. The Free Media Movement describes the move as a "step backward" while the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged the government not to go ahead and reinstate what it calls "a politically appointed" Press Council that is empowered to punish the media. "At a moment when violence between security forces and the LTTE is intensifying, it is crucial that the Sri Lankan press be free to cover all sides of the conflict without official restraint," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. What is the need for the government to take such a regressive step? In Sri Lanka's political tradition, a government is given a six-month honeymoon period, during which the people tolerate the omissions and failures of the new government and treat them as teething problems. The Mahinda Rajapaksa government has just completed six months and newspapers are carrying exposés about corrupt deals involving government bigwigs. One such exposé was a multi-million dollar urea deal, which some top government officials are alleged to have approved in a record time of six hours over the phone, violating tender procedures. In defence of its move, the government might say the non-statutory Press Complaints Commission was not effective and therefore it was necessary to reactivate the Press Council whose rulings are binding. The Press Complaints Commission, modelled on its counterpart in Britain, is still a nascent body. It is not without its flaws. For instance, a friend of mine told me that the PCC could not provide redress he sought in a complaint against a newspaper, which refused to correct an erroneous report that described Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The PCC said since the complainant was not directly affected by the report, it could not entertain the complaint. But the complainant, a supporter of the Palestinian rights, told me that the report had caused immense mental pain to him and this was lost on the PCC inquiry panel. However, many media activists are optimistic that with time and experience, the PCC will emerge as a strong alternative to the government-controlled Press Council. They also say that to defeat government's move to revive the Press Council, the media should exercise greater responsibility and fully submit it to a process of self-regulation in the greater interest of the freedom of expression and the people's right to know. Ameen Izzadeen is a Sri Lankan journalist based in Colombo ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Groups gets a make over. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/XISQkA/lOaOAA/yQLSAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -- Members of the ZESTMedia list exchange news and views about the media in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan. Write to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTMedia by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! 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