Objective media helps healthy democracy

Despite the relationship between politicians and the media being something interdependent, it is always not friendly. With media always going after politicians in search of stories while politicians too always seeking media publicity even for their absurdities, this relationship thrives, while at the same time it sometimes sours as both parties, but in most cases politicians, attempt to take undue advantages from this relationship.   
While attempting to use the media as a ladder in their ambitious upward journey towards high positions, politicians at every possible occasion make the media scapegoat when something goes wrong, blame the fourth estate for their failures, publicly berate the media that carry stories that are unpleasant to them and sometimes go to the extent of threatening the journalists and of course sometimes cause the journalists to make the supreme sacrifice, just for telling the truth.   

It was only last week Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage accused that media had misquoted him as saying that only those farmers who have incurred losses after using all four kinds of  “organic fertiliser” that were distributed among them by the agriculture Ministry would be compensated. He said that what he said was that farmers must have used at least one of those four kinds of fertiliser and have incurred losses, to be entitled for compensation.   

Some television channels exposed him immediately by telecasting the footages that contained both his statements. His first statement earned ire from the farmers who challenged him to prove that the ministry had distributed all four kinds of fertiliser to all farmers.   

Though he blamed the media for “misquoting” he did not deny those media reports immediately, as it should have been if he had not made such a provocative comment. That first statement and the reaction by the farmers might have reached the higher-ups pressing him to make a volte-face. However, instead of acknowledging the mistake he made, which would have been praised by the people, he put the blame on the media in his second statement.   
We have to admit that media too is no saint. They have promoted politically sponsored “Dammika Peniya,” aroused racism during elections in support of certain political parties and spread politically motivated superstitious stories. Politicians criticise unethical reportage only if it is disadvantageous to their politics.   

Misquoting has really been taking place from time immemorial, out of failure to grasp what transpired, out of political or racial bias or any other reason. A recent case in point was the statement by the respected scientist Prof. Neelika Malavige of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, where she said she had been misquoted by the media on opening schools during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic. No media contested her in this regard. On the other hand, people also hide behind false allegations of misquoting when they are in hot water for their stupidities. On the eve of the last general election one of the members of the National Election Commission, Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole was accused of making a statement against one of the main contenders, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) during an interview with a Tamil journalist. He denied the allegation accusing certain media for misquoting him. However, the controversy did not last long as both the accusers and his defenders were those who do not understand Tamil while the Tamils did not take part in the debate.   

When UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet in March, 2019 said that a newspaper article quoting Northern Province Governor Suren Raghavan “seriously misrepresented” a discussion she held with a Sri Lankan Government delegation, Raghavan too said that he had been misquoted. Yet, he too did not take action to correct the relevant media reports until Bachelet released her statement.  President Gotabaya Rajapaksa while opening the Mirigama to Kurunegala stretch of the Central Expressway on Saturday called on the media to become a stakeholder of development without dispiriting the masses. However, he did not elaborate how media dispirit the masses. He might have meant the current adverse reports on the skyrocketing of prices, scarcity of essential goods, farmers’ agitations and gas related explosions. In fact, those reports reflect the real situation in the country now, despite them being unpleasant to hear.     

Imagine a situation where media avoid reporting the plight of the farmers, skyrocketing of prices, gas related explosions and scarcity of essential goods. How would the government then come to know about the gravity of these problems and make amends, before the situation gets out of hand? It was after these reports that the President appointed a committee to look into the gas related explosions which concluded that the wrong gas composition had resulted in such explosions. It was also after the agitations by the farmers were brought to the notice of the government that the private sector was permitted to import chemical fertiliser. 

Hence, media criticism helps the Government to correct itself.