By Saman Indrajith

Mass Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma says the media all over the world are facing the issue of credibility deficiency.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the 67th anniversary of the Sri Lanka Press Association at the Sri Lanka Foundation recently, the Minister said that credibility loss was not a problem limited to one or two countries.

“Credibility of the media is at question owing to three main issues among others. Not only as the Minister of Mass Media but also as a citizen I see these three causes that harm the credibility of the media. Integrity of the media is lost when the journalists are compelled to stand for the whims and fancies of the media ownership. This is a problem faced not only by the state-owned media but also by the privately-owned media. The former may try to uphold the government in power whether it is blue, green or red while the latter try to defend the interests of their owners, or to stand for the political and business interests or image causing the loss of balance. The second cause of losing credibility is encroachment of privacy of persons by the media. This is a main reason behind people questioning the credibility of the media all over the world. The third reason is reporting news based on attitudes, hypotheses and hunches rather than facts. When the foundation for news is not facts but the attitudes dished out as news, the media loses people’s respect. These are the three main reasons for the loss of integrity of the media globally.

“My stand could be countered by showing ratings and circulation figures. But, you have to remember that people’s trust or respect can never be measured by the rating cards or circulation figures. You cannot match economic assumptions with the aspects of the media. The rationale of economics is primarily based on supply and demand theory which cannot be generalized to be applied for the media culture. Those are two different things. One may say that they have the highest ratings and highest circulation but that does not mean they command the respect of their viewers or the readers. The media industry today is facing a crisis because of the attempts to mix it with the needs of supply and demand. In that sense, the media profession and political profession are both the same because the Constitution may have a clause stating that such an institution is supreme, the people would not accept it so. People know that the constitution says so but they do not accept it as a supreme institute or respect it for that. There is a huge difference between respect and fear. I was once a journalist, now my profession is politics. What I have observed is that both in these two professions have mixed up the connotations of respect and fear. People may have fear for the politicians but not respect. Some people have fear for the media, but the media should never misunderstand that fear as respect which should be earned and comes not from the same path of the fear. For example, circulations of newspapers have decreased world over. It is common truth for all the papers including the New York Times to the newspapers in Sri Lanka. Yet, there is no decrease in respect for the print media,” the minister said, adding that maintaining that respect is of utmost importance.

“That cannot be achieved by the laws, rules and regulations. It cannot be achieved by censorship. Every government that attempted to control the media using coercive methods has ended up in the dustbins of history,” Minister Alahapperuma said.

Minister Alahappermua was the Chief Guest at the 67th anniversary convention of the Sri Lanka Press Association (SLPA). Five senior journalists, Sunil Daya De Alwis, Sarath Cooray, Arthur U. Amarasena, Chandrika Wijesundara and A.C De Silva, were felicitated at this ceremony for their service to journalism in Sri Lanka.

President of the Association, Silumina Editor-in-Chief Dharman Wickramaratne, Patron of the Association, Muditha Kariyakarawana and General Secretary of the Association Kurulu Kariyakarawana were also present.