Celebrating World Press Freedom Day

By Senashia Ekanayake

WHILE 500 journalists have been killed globally throughout the last decade, Sri Lanka’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index has declined from the 50s at the turn of the millennium to 158 in 2010.

Addressing an audience on the theme of ‘21st Century Media: New Barriers, New Frontiers’ for World Press Freedom Day were LIRNEasia Founder CEO Dr. Rohan Samarajeewa, British journalist and media trainer Fiona Barton, Nalaka Gunawardena and Lanka Business Online (LBO) Editor Asantha Sirimanna.

Speaking on Information Communications Technology (ICTs) and the Arab Spring was Dr. Samarajeewa who remarked that Sri Lanka too was a country that used ICT for regime change purposes in the 1970-1971 insurrection period with the use of Audio Cassettes. He went on to say that the Arab Spring is/was an era of upheaval where one country learned from another when progressing with their respective revolutions.

“When the revolt started off in Tunisian Uprising the Government did not shut down network and communications. However when the rebellion took place in Egypt, despite the country being less connected than the former the Egyptian Government did shut down the country’s network. In the case of Libya, the country is more connected through the medium of voice and its people made the most of fixed or mobile telephone resources available. The country’s Government also shutdown Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya news networks and tried a first in its attempt to jam satellite phones.”  

New media

New media plays a vital role in the broadcast and expansion of what is known as mainstream media. While it may not be always popular it is undeniably more accessible and available to a greater number of people.

Noting its importance was British journalist and media trainer Fiona Barton who used the examples of Twitter and WikiLeaks to substantiate the statement. She remarked that while Organisations such as WikiLeaks allowed access to that of which mainstream media did not, Twitter was invaluable in bringing out news on afore mentioned Arab Spring.

“While the Syrian and Libyan revolts saw nearly 30-35 tweets per minute; the Egyptian revolution saw 40-45,” she cited. At the panel discussion that followed, she remarked that the reaction to new media differed and varied greatly given the continent or country to which an individual belonged.

Exploring the potential of the internet and digital platforms was Nalaka Gunawardena who brought to light that the country had a collaboration of analogue and digital media. While the transition was slow he observed that one had to look back and resolve mistakes; incorporate it to present day and circumstances and look and plan ahead as to what would lie in the future.

He also commented on the importance of collaborative media; a coming together of citizen journalism — bloggers and other user-generated content — and mainstream media. The latter was referred to in the context of print and electronic media.

Elaborating further he remarked that technology in general was pacing rapidly and was disproportionate when on par with the required research that was done. This was explained with the example of the

e-shadow created by most people by use of mobiles, computers and other electronic or digital devices that shared information via cookies, history or other storage information, “Most people voluntarily disclose their details online. However, most people do so unconsciously.”

He went on to speak on the “smart mob” who were not realistic in terms of change. He noted that while real world change takes longer than that of online he cited the example of 25 June; how attention was shifted from calamities in Iran to the death of Michael Jackson within a fraction of hours. He attributed the sources change to technology, demography and consumer behaviour.

Interactivity

As the panel discussion was introduced the subject took another step forward and pondered on the importance of interactivity. It was said that interactivity was a very important factor to retain, explore and diversify the attention of a reader or blogger because, as mentioned, events in cyberspace moved at a very rapid space than events in reality that needed to acknowledge and grasp the news of what occurred.

The panellists went on to say that though it was vital for online journalists, bloggers and other users to respond almost immediately, the requirement of moderation, filtering and regulation too were required. In this regard while some speakers noted the importance of implementing self-regulation; Sirimanna commented that the State would try to restrict this at some point.

Barton in this regard however noted that while self-regulation could not be imposed, it was pivotal for individuals to develop a code of ethics within themselves.