Sri Lanka’s ‘Fourth Estate’ Rising from the Ashes

The media has often had great influence on public affairs and is referred to as the fourth estate. In the 19th century, the fourth estate came to refer exclusively to the press (print media). Today it’s applied to all branches of the news media and is accepted in general as being a legitimate political force performing a watchdog function.

The idea of an independent newspaper in our country, was rather strangely introduced by William Colebrook. The man appointed by the British Government to look into the affairs of administration of Sri Lanka in 1829! Colebrook was of the opinion an independent newspaper was the only means to curtail the powers of the British Governor. 

In January 1832, the first English language newspaper the ‘Colombo Journal’ commenced publication. Though patronised by the government, the editor always emphasised that the ‘Colombo Journal’ was an independent newspaper. The Colombo Journal was discontinued on 31st December 1833. It is said the news paper’s severe criticism of the colonial regime led to its closure.

In response to the government’s closure of the only newspaper which criticised the government, there was a growing demand among Colombo’s business community for a free newspaper. This led to a number of Colombo-based businessmen setting up the ‘The Observer and Commercial Advertiser’. The first edition was brought out on 4 February 1834.

Today’s ‘Observer’ newspaper according to World Gen Web Project, was the forerunner of the newspaper of the same name which is still published in our country. During the time of the 1848 rebellion, the Observer played a vital role in molding the public opinion driving the Ceylonese against the colonial government with startling news that the British intended in destroying the sacred Tooth Relic. 

To counter the attacks of the ‘Observer’, Governor Sir Robert Horton, to challenge the Observer, aided the commencement of another newspaper. In the tussle between the British Governor and the editor of the ‘Observer, the Chief Justice and Auditor-General supported the editor of the Observer.

Those early struggles to set up a free press in Lanka, in a nutshell reflects the ups and downs of press freedom in our country. 

The post independence period saw the rise of a vibrant press in all three languages. However, as in the case of British colonial Governors, particular governments attempted to tame the media in post independent era.

In 1973 the Associated Newspapers Group was taken over by the government of Ms. Sirima Bandaranaike. The publications of the group subsequently became a mouth-piece of every government which followed. No criticism of the governing powers were permitted. 

Between 1977 to 1994 the muzzling of the free press continued under the United National Party governments of Presidents J. R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa. Jayawardene who hypocritically condemned the take-over of Associated Newspapers, continued state monopoly of that institution and cynically took over the Times Group of Newspapers in August 1977 and finally ran the publication into bankruptcy.

Using excuses of ‘naxalite plots’ and the Tamil insurgency, governments of Jayawardene and R. Premadasa imposed strict press censorship and used the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to intimidate and control the media.

However, muzzling the media rose to astronomic heights under the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa. From 2005 to 2015, a systematic assault on the press took place. Local records show 34 journalists were killed over the period. Tamil journalists were the worst affected. 

In 2014, Sri Lanka was ranked fourth on an index of countries where journalists are slain, and their killers go scot free. The most famous killing during that era was of the Editor of the Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunge, in January 2009. 

But the spirit of journalism though shaken was never broken. Today we have probably the most powerful elected government, with a clear two third majority in parliament. The government was elected on a platform of anti corruption and transparency. 

Yet, media uncovered the third most important person in government, the Speaker of the House’ had fraudulently claimed to possess a Doctorate. The exposure by the media, ranging from print, to audio, visual, digital and social media forced that gentleman to eventually step down. The Lankan media has been whipped, but remains unbowed.