Hands off the media

Leader of the House Minister Bimal Rathnayake had some harsh words for the media on Monday in Parliament.

“The media has set this country on fire. The media had worked to turn this country into a graveyard. The media is not so innocent,” Rathnayake charged during an exchange of strong words with the Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.

This was after Premadasa criticised the decision to summon a newspaper editor to the CID for the publication of an article related to the police clearance procedures, which the SJB leader said was heavily politicised.

This irked Rathnayake who said that even if it is the media or even a god, if they lie to the people, they must stand against it.

Media personnel are well aware that they are the darling of politicians who are in the Opposition but the moment they come to power they expect the media to be subservient and toe the Government line. Rathnayake is not the first to express such views and certainly will not be the last but maybe it’s time to refresh his memory on the role that this very media played in helping the JVP-led NPP to gain power.

The JVP, before its metamorphosis into the NPP, and even after that till 2024, was confined to the political backwaters and needed all the publicity it could garner to build its public image. To do so, it was not its party cadres or its party publications or social media handlers who helped the party to come out of the wilderness. It was the mainstream media, newspapers and the electronic media.

The majority of the media organisations are privately owned and it is widely known that most are affiliated to political families but despite this, those who make up the seniors in the NPP Government today and even its trade unionists have had the benefit of getting wide publicity. They had hours and hours of television time in private channels and pages of interviews, which gave the party a chance to get their views across. Public events in which the JVP members participated were also given wide coverage when the party wasn’t exactly hot property.

The media on the other hand is not above error and Dr. Shafi’s is a case in point but as a senior Government minister, he should know better than to paint the entire media as evil. 

The threatening and intimidation of the media doesn’t help the cause of the Government, certainly not in the long run.

Since taking office, those in Government have developed a phobia toward the media, almost all ministers refusing to talk to journalists, refusing interviews or even giving a comment. Getting them to comment on a subject that comes under their purview has become a tedious process while most Ministers/MPs seem to be under some kind of gag order. Cabinet Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa makes a weekly appearance at the press briefing but is unresponsive when journalists need a comment, which begs the question why there is an Official Spokesman who refuses to speak to journalists when they need him to.

The Washington Post’s public tagline is “Democracy dies in darkness.” 

If the Government thinks it can do everything behind closed doors, keep the media out and threaten and intimidate journalists who somehow get the story, it’s a direct threat to democracy. Ministers like Bimal Rathnayake need to get off their high horse and engage with the media, because power is fleeting and should not go to one’s head.

The Government in general also needs to change its attitude in how it engages with the media. It will be a win-win situation for both, and more importantly, for the country.