Towards a 'Responsible Media'

Practically every Banda, Silva, Aiyar and Mohammed in this country who have not been viewed favourably by the media, particularly by the press, keep telling us : Media should act responsibly'. Indeed, the media should like all other sections of society -- particularly politicians--- act responsibly. But it so happens that it is the media that is singled out.

Recently we had the Captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team, Mr. Arjuna Ranatunga on his triumphant return home from Britain pointing his finger at the media and asking the media to act responsibly. Presumably Mr. Ranatunga is angry about criticism in the privately owned media, including The Island for dropping our best all rounder, Mr. Roshan Mahanama. How this criticism could have affected the performances of our cricketers, we fail to understand and the fact that it didn't is proof that the criticism made was not irresponsible

Yesterday we had in the Daily News an article by the Chairman of Rupavahini, Mr D.E.W. Gunasekera, titled : Media has to act with optimum sense of responsibility. Mr. Gunasekera , a veteran member of the Communist Party, would have undoubtedly been an admirer of the media of the former Soviet Union. The two big newspapers of the Soviet Union, Pravda ( Truth) and the Izvestia ( News) would have been much to his liking and the observation that the 'Pravda had no news and the Izvestia said no truth', would probably be dismissed by him as mischievous Yankee propaganda. He , like his fellow communists , saw nothing wrong with the Soviet system , till the collapse of Communism, the Soviet Union and the Socialist Bloc. He should, at least now , examine whether the tame and obedient Soviet media had acted with' an optimum sense of responsibility'while the country was being ruined. Had the Soviet media reported the Afghan war of the Soviet Union as the American media reported the Vietnam war, what would have been the result ? The Soviet people were unaware of the thousands of their soldiers perishing in the snows of Afghanistan until they had to capitulate. Did the 'responsible' Soviet press who saw nothing wrong in the military campaign,help win the war ?

On the other hand, a great many say that the American media's coverage ofthe war was the cause of the American debacle. However, the consensus among Americans today is that it was the portrayal of the Vietnam War as an ' unwinnable war' by the media that prevented many more American and Vietnamese lives being lost.

Mr. Gunasekera has described the Media as' the watch dog' of the nation. Watch dogs of nations, are those who bark at any person who threatens to destroy the nation.His state media watch dogs, however, are not watchdogs of the nation but lap dogs of their bosses-- pet poodles-- who bark madly at one and all who dare criticise the master of mistress and let those rogues inside the house loot it.According to the state media , heads of state and ministers can do no wrong This Papal attribute of Infallibility has been conferred on all heads of state by Lake House since it went under state control. And that is what state radio and TV too have been doing all the time.

Mr. Gunasekera, the Moscow hardliner, late in his day, has come to realise the greatness Mao Tse Tung, whom he describes as' the world's greatest strategist in guerrilla warfare' Mao's famous dictum: The guerrilla, like fish cannot survive without water, cannot survive without the people' This wisdom, regrettably, is not practiced. For example, Prabakaran has for 15 years been able to draw his cadres from the people of the North and East. What have successive governments, including the PA, done to drain the people away from Prabakaran ?Mr. Gunasekera, the media man should know that no propaganda has been carried out to tell the people of the North and East-- cut away from the rest of the world for 15 years-- the policies ofthe government and that the Tamils are considered equal citizens with all others in this country.

Mr Gunasekera should at least consider dropping radios and newspapers from the air to these isolated people. It could prove much more effective than dropping bombs. But there is a hitch to this strategy. When people in the Wanni jungles do not hear reports of what is happening to them on their radios and nothing of it is reported in the newspapers because of the red pens wielded by Gen. Ratwatte's censors,they will come to the conclusion that what the state media says is utter balderdash and Prabakaran tells the truth !

That Mr. Gunasekera should realise is what happens with the state media welcomes censorship of news from the battlefront and 'Acts with an Optimum Sense of Responsibility'