Respect the media!

Journalism is one of the most powerful careers, with the pen holding more power than even the highest position in any country.

The media works tirelessly every single day to feed the public with news, and that too in an accurate manner in order to fight disinformation and expose those corrupt.

However in Sri Lanka, for politicians, the media seems to be beneficial only during elections or when they want to blow their own trumpet.

During elections, just like the Gods of all religions are remembered and visited by every politician, journalists also receive the 'privilege' of hearing sweet, flavourful language from politicians, in the hope they would get good prominence in the national news bulletins and newspapers.

However, soon after the elections are over, journalists usually turn into WWF wrestlers for these leaders, with interviews usually ending up in verbal wrestling matches.

It has been too long now that Sri Lankan political leaders, when questioned by journalists on transparency, accountability, corruption and violations have ended up going into a defensive mode, accusing the interviewer rather than giving straight answers for questions asked. We have seen multiple times that when these leaders have been put into a spot over their failures, they turn to accusing the media for being biased and carry 'personal agendas' rather than giving clear answers to accept their failures.

In Sri Lanka, the most common answer received by the politician is that, "Sri Lanka has commissions appointed and we will do our own investigations". But little do they know that neither do their endless commissions and investigations have to date brought justice to the victims or ended the endless corruption.

Journalists should be lauded for their patience and courage to bear the insults of political leaders who look at aggressive answers to belittle the media as their only way of saving themselves from being answerable to the public. We journalists are a lot who are usually at the receiving end but continue highlighting the wrong despite the pressure.

Maybe it is high time the political lot realize that shooting the messenger will not work anymore.