Fearless journalists need to support public revolution

Famous American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst has said that news is something that someone wants suppressed. The rest is advertising. Going on that high standard, media conferences, political rallies and most other events arranged are meant to give publicity to the organisers and sell them for the benefit of the readers or viewers.  

On May 3, we mark World Media Freedom Day and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) says the event acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to media freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of media freedom and professional ethics. 

 
Journalists need to remember that the work they do is more than a profession. It is a vocation. Essentially journalists need to be the voice of the voiceless people. Journalists need to go out to poverty stricken areas and highlight the plight of those human beings till the government or others in authority take some remedial action. That is why journalists are being trained to go into creative and investigative reporting where their innovative skills are expressed in an excellent manner.   

Essentially journalists need to be committed to free, fair and balanced reporting or feature writing. If they have any other agenda, especially to support a political party it would be better to find another job. Investigative and creative journalists are change-makers, risk takers and therefore game changers. Unfortunately many media groups have few such vocation oriented professionals who maintain high standards. Instead we see many who just want by-lines and sometimes even buy-lines because there are instances where political parties and big business groups have offered up to Rs.100,000 to carry an article.   

Good journalists also need to check, double check and even triple check what they write and they need to do the checking from reliable sources. That is why to train a good investigative and creative reporter, and good sub editors, reporters there is a need for about five years of practical on-the-job training. The sooner the journalists realise this the better it would be for the country especially in a crisis such as what we are going through today, where an ‘aragalaya’ is reaching the proportions of a public revolution at the Galle Face Green opposite the Presidential Secretariat and in most parts of the country. The revolution with the theme being ‘GotaGoHome’ as a vision of preventing a family dictatorship where those in high places are alleged to have billions of dollars, stolen from the people and maybe secret accounts overseas, accounts that are often put in the names of family members and close friends to make detection more difficult. A report alleged that one such leader had so many billions hidden in secret accounts that the government could obtain aid from him instead of going with a begging bowl to the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank.   

During the past two decades many journalists have been killed, tortured or threatened with death if they perceive a particular story. The most prominent case was the killing of the Sunday Leader’s investigative editor Lasantha Wickrematunga.   

Today the biggest cover-up by the government is the Easter Sunday massacre that took place on April 21, 2019 while Presidential Elections were due to be held in November that year. Colombo’s Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and a group comprising some of those injured and families of those who were killed went to the Vatican for a Holy Mass and a meeting with Pope Francis to get the international community to find out who did what for whose sake. Indian intelligence reports had warned of the attack but little was done amidst speculation that the number one then did not take preventive action possibly to help one candidate to win the Presidential election. Tragically most of Sri Lanka’s media groups are doing little or nothing to expose those who killed about 270 people and injured more than 500 in one of the worst massacres in history.   

While the government is split into many sections, some reports say the President is gunning for the Prime Minister and we may soon see a general election, a national government comprising all parties or the abolition of the Executive Presidency. This is a crisis that could change Sri Lanka’s history and independent journalists need to come out fearlessly to tell the people how the political leaders have taken them for a ride with the cost of living soaring to outer space and long queues for essential items such as fuel, gas, powdered milk.