Restructure political and media culture in Sri Lanka

We are led to believe that the present political drama is in part, a creation of the lopsided and skewed media culture that we now witness.  In general, the present day media are accustomed to highlighting and blowing all the negative issues out of proportion at the expense of country’s economy, development efforts, ethical and value systems.

They seem to have mastered ‘Goebellism’ and ‘Sensationalism’ more than following media ethics and are hell bent on bloating a bunch of  unreliable, political liars who have no principles, values, ethics or morals, with their main headlines and prime time news.

They aggravate political rivalry and add fuel to fire without dwelling on conflict resolution. They hold their microphones to talkative, egoistic politicians who seek nothing but power and publicity. Some channels blatantly engage in ugly personal vendettas and witch hunts.  

In the process they make demi-gods of satanic politicians. They hardly highlight the exemplary deeds and righteous acts of deserving personalities worthy of emulation. Can children and simple citizens look up to any of the present-day politicians as role-models to develop positive thinking and patriotism?

We are at a loss to understand why the media is brazenly continuing to force-feed the people with ‘mega tele-dramas’ in the guise of prime time news  laced with liberal doses of unbalanced, political bunkum and blood curdling incidents and accidents. As political animals people have got addicted to this political comedy that will never help to build a patriotic citizenry or develop a ‘debt-trapped’ country. Even developed countries do not resort to this so called liberal media culture that make scape goats of simple people who are compelled to feed on and digest this unbridled news fodder!

If our country is to emerge out of this pathetic morass, our present political and media culture should undergo a paradigm shift, in order to prioritise and highlight more positive facets of life that promote country’s development efforts and value systems for the people.

In a developing country like ours, the media gurus should train their students to focus on the ‘country first’ when they report. Since media freedom and freedom of expression are projected as undeniable rights, we exhort on intelligent, patriotic media, politicians and citizens with country at heart to facilitate this much needed change through example and relentless pressure.

Bernard Fernando,

Moratuwa.