SRI LANKA: ‘Free Media’ Panel Part of Political Games

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Dec 19 2003 (IPS) - Sri Lanka’s media have come under the microscope once again with this week’s creation of a task force to formulate a free media policy, a move that has been praised but also slammed as a political move.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga, now in charge of the media ministry after a stunning move against her erstwhile opponent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in November, appointed a presidential body to review media practices and recommend guidelines for free media to operate in the country.

Under normal circumstances, the decision would have been welcomed by everyone, including the media.

But given the bitter battle between the two leaders ever since Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) won parliamentary polls in December 2001 and began sharing power with Kumaratunga from the opposition People’s Alliance (PA), decisions by either side, however logical and pragmatic, are perceived as political moves.

This tussle led to Kumaratunga’s firing of key Cabinet ministers named by Wickremesinghe in November, and the current political instability. Wickremesinghe is now pushing for snap parliamentary polls in the hope of increasing his party’s majority in parliament.

The leaders are trying to work out a power-sharing pact, following widespread public agitation for stability and calls for the revival of stalled peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Meantime, critics are zeroing in on the weaknesses of the media task force.

”The task force which comprises people who support one party (PA) and does not contain representatives from other parties” said Jehan Perera, a newspaper columnist and media director at the National Peace Council (NPC), a foreign-funded peace promoter. ”The whole composition of the group is biased”.

The 12-member task force is led by Sarath Amunugama, a media academic in addition to being a parliamentarian and chief spokesman for Kumaratunga’s party, and includes journalists, university professors and academics.

A journalist member of the task force, who declined to be named, said that although he was informed of the likelihood of being appointed to the group, he was not formally asked. ”I was surprised when I read it in the newspapers today. I have steered clear of political appointments for the past two years,” he told IPS.

Victor Ivan, editor of the Sinhala-language daily ‘Ravaya’, said policies to control the media should be formulated by the industry, for the industry. ”You can’t impose solutions,” he was quoted as saying on local television station, MTV.

All these come a time when the Sri Lankan media have been criticised for either being anti-peace on one side or largely controlled by Wickremesinghe’s party on the other.

A not-too-closely guarded secret is that the prime minister has party-friendly journalists holding high positions in private newspapers, television and radio stations after he won power or installed them there after that. This select group often accompanies Wickremesinghe on overseas tours and unofficially directs the government’s media and public relations campaign.

The prime minister, who needs media support to push forward a peace process stalled after a tiff with Kumaratunga, is relying heavily on the private media after the president took over the media, defence and interior portfolios last month, while he was away in the United States to meet U.S. President George W Bush.

Kumaratunga now controls two television stations, two radio stations and a powerful newspaper group that come under the Media Ministry. They often spout PA-friendly news, views and comments while criticising the Wickremesinghe and his party, contrary to the reasons for the takeover.

Earlier, the president said she was forced to take over the state media because they were biased toward the UNP and sought to hide the truth.

The presidential committee drafting guidelines for a free media has been tasked with recommending procedures and guidelines to ensure quality and diversity of media programmes, the carrying out of public and social obligations by the media and the legality, decency and truthfulness of content in media programmes.

It is also supposed to recommend ways to ensure autonomy in programme selection while maintaining a free media open to all social groups within the scope of basic ethical and legal norms.

Last month, the Free Media Movement (FMM), Sri Lanka’s main media watchdog, slammed the takeover of the state media by Kumaratunga, saying the state media machinery has now shifted to supporting the PA from supporting the UNP.

”The state media is like a set of musical chairs,” noted the editor of a Tamil daily, who declined to be named, reflecting on the way it has been used by the country’s two political parties.

It did not help that last week, Wickremesinghe banned government ministries, departments and corporations under his control from advertising in the Kumaratunga-controlled media. He also told his ministers and ruling party politicians to refuse requests for interviews or comments from state media.

”It sounds like the whining of a brat,” columnist Malinda Seneviratne said of the boycott of state media in Tuesday’s ‘Island’ newspaper. ”When the state boycotts the state, we can only laugh.”

The FMM also condemned the UNP government’s decision to ban state sector advertising in state media under the president. By this decision, the government has shown again that ”the tendency of all governments to control the media through state advertisements is still in practice”, it said in a statement.

Journalists interviewed by IPS say they do not expect the presidential task force to perform miracles and throw up with guidelines and solutions that would satisfy all segments of the media.

The more sceptical say that this exercise is a short-term, buying-time effort by Kumaratunga as she prepares for a round of provincial council polls that must be held before next April on a staggered basis starting from January and February.