In just over five months’ time, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Ceylon Daily News. D.R. Wijewardena, the newspaper magnate of Sri Lanka, commenced the publication of this newspaper on January 3,1918. As a successful entrepreneur, he established Lake House newspapers and played a major role in the national integration and the independence movement, particularly through his newspapers.
Hence, it seems an appropriate moment to examine the role of our present media and how they can play their part in promoting national integration. Often referred to as part of the Fourth Branch of the Government, there is no doubt that if caution is not exercised, the media can work as a double-edged sword capable of cutting through any social or political armour.
In recognition of this crucial role, President Maithripala Sirisena has consistently requested the media to desist from propagating inflammatory statements likely to foment divisions and ethnic hatred. In fact, many times certain Sri Lankan journalists in their pursuit of the so-called press freedom, have adopted an aggressive attitude towards the government by writing news reports that were harmful to the national interest.
Media ethics
It is a simple matter of ethics! Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists. This subset of media ethics is widely known to journalists as their professional “code of ethics.”
We do have a Code of Ethics for Journalists issued by the Press Council in 1981. We also have a more updated Code of Professional Practice of the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka and Free Media Movement adopted by the Sri Lanka Press Institute.
Director General of Government Information recently said that the present Government will set up an independent commission for media sector. Among other matters, Commission is expected to introduce a new code of ethics for journalists.
The western media, which is the envy of many journalists, is also guided by their own set of codes. For example, take the code suggested by Hutchins Commission in 1947. Their guidelines were set up around two important ideas. The first is that “whoever enjoys a special measure of freedom, like a professional journalist, has an obligation to society to use their freedoms and powers responsibly.” The second that was established is “society’s welfare is paramount, more important than individual careers or even individual rights.”
The Hutchins Commission added another five guidelines. (1) Present meaningful news, accurate and separated from opinion. (2) Serve as a forum for the exchange of comment and criticism and to expand access to diverse points of view. (3) Project “a representative picture of the constituent groups in society” by avoiding stereotypes by including minority groups. (4) Clarify the goals and values of society; implicit was an appeal to avoid pandering to the lowest common denominator. (5) Give broad coverage of what was known about society.
Hutchins Commission realized the importance of the media’s role in national unity and integration and accordingly included as the third guideline that media should reflect the diversity of the religious and racial cultures they represent. These guidelines inspired Society of Professional Journalists (USA) to adapt it in 1996 as the current version of media ethics.
Experiences
It is ironic that some of our journalists pretend to be oblivious to the devastating effects of reckless reporting when they had abundant examples of the role the media had played in major conflicts in the world. The case of the Rwandan genocide is an instructive one. The death of Rwandan President in a plane crash in April 1994, triggered off a genocide against Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
A United Nations tribunal set afterwards established that some media executives played a key role in inciting ethnic killings. The tribunal established that “hate media” played a significant role in the genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered.
In Kenya, some media spread hate messages which created atrocities and led to genocides in early ‘90s. Kosovo, a province of the former Yugoslavia, in 1999, when tens of thousands of civilians were kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed in ethno-political violence pitting Serbs against Kosovar Albanians. Later investigations have revealed that media had played a substantial role in the incitement of both parties.
History reveals many more examples.
The monitoring of some segments of Sri Lankan media reveals that inflammatory coverage does not necessarily consist of a direct call to violence, but instead takes the form of indirect terminology that still has dangerous potential to foment conflict. Current regulatory and self-regulatory efforts designed to prevent media incitement to violence have, thus far, been insufficient. Lessons learned from post-conflict Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq can assist us in creating our own legal and self-regulatory mechanisms to limit inflammatory media coverage.
There are a wide range of measures to mitigate inflammatory media coverage, including targeted training for media and government officials, broad support for a professional code of conduct, a full review of existing legislation relating to incitement, and the creation of a lexicon of inflammatory terms with guidelines for the proper use of these terms.
Truth
Unfortunately, given the present rapidity of communication in Sri Lanka and the perception that dramatized news sells, there seems to be little appetite for withholding or de-sensationalizing information even in times of conflicts.
Additionally, we have also seen two negative developments in Sri Lanka in recent years, despite the undeniable benefits of the information revolution, the increasing partisanship reflected in some media means prejudices are reinforced and a flood of unverified statements and deliberate misinformation has muddied the public’s efforts to learn the “truth.” It is hard to claim, therefore, that technological advances in the media by themselves had promoted peace.
Isms
Today, almost eight years after the end of the war Sri Lanka has been still unable to secure stable peace and national integration. The need for national integration is required today more than ever before. At this juncture when a greater degree of reconciliation between national communities exists, any relapse into the status quo that prevailed during the last regime would be a national calamity. Unfortunately, there are signs of a resurgence of communal animosity and the media should take the lead in preventing it.
The four ‘isms’ –communalism, religious fundamentalism, regionalism and linguism have always been the bane of our nation since we gained independence. President Maithripala Sirisena constituted Ministry of National Integration and Reconciliation when the New Government came to power to find out ways and means to combat these very forces. The Ministry’s website does not give much information to make an evaluation whether noteworthy steps have been taken to address these problems.
We all know how religious fundamentalism, in any of its forms can harm the country and the national sentiment. They do erode the essence of nationalism - the love for the nation, identification with the national sentiment, the sense of patriotism.
Patriotism is the soul of a nation. When patriotism dies, a nation loses the love and loyalty of its people, and then the nation dies and begins to decompose. Patriotism is not nation-worship, it is not even the denigration of other races or religions above one’s own. It is an attachment to one’s own country – its land, its people, its past, its heroes, literature, language, traditions, culture, and customs.
There are people in this country who hold an exclusive view of religion which drives them into sectarian frenzy that does not admit tolerance of other. Despite a shared culture of so many years, linguistics diversities have often generated tensions and conflicts among different communities threatening the fabric of national unity.
The same holds good for regionalism aggravated no doubt by inequitable development amongst different regions of this country. All the above forces and factors do pose a challenge to Sri Lanka’s national integration and therefore conscious efforts will have to be made by all concerned to preserve the same.
Media can help in the exposure to all the cultures of different regions. Thus, bringing the whole country together as one nation. Media can play a distinguished role in the society. Whenever there are crises in the country media can play a part as a tool of crises management.
Whenever there are forces working against the integrity and solidarity of Sri Lanka, it is the responsibility of the media to perform as a tool of information between the government and the masses. Media need to act as a watchdog that has an eye on everything in the society, to tell the good and bad to the society.
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