පුවත්පත් මණ්ඩල ක්‍රමය නැවත ඇති කිරීම
The Press Council was left dormant in 2002 so that the industry could regulate itself, and is now being revived. Ivan sets out what is wrong with the law — registration of every owner and editor, renewable yearly — and what is wrong with the self-regulation that replaced it, and concludes that the media organisations’ only course is to negotiate a single institution in which the government also has a share.
කර්තෘ සංසදයේ ආචාර ධර්ම හා පුවත්පත් පැමිණිලි කොමිසම
Reading Ian Beales’s review in the Press Complaints Commission’s 2007 annual report, Ivan
sets out a verdict the industry has not answered: four years on, self-regulation stands
still, complaints are few and weak, the newspapers themselves are divided over whether they
want it, and the Editors’ Guild has let its own code go unreviewed. If neither the public it
protects nor the industry that made it believes in it, Beales asks, what future can it have?
සාකච්ඡා කිරීම හා සටන් කිරීම
Accused at a public forum of helping the government’s war, Ivan answers by setting out
thirty years of his own dealings with power: the twenty-odd statements he has given the CID,
the night J.R. Jayewardene ordered him to drop a column and the month he obeyed before
resuming it, the raid on the Ravaya office five days after he declined President Premadasa’s
invitation, and the meetings with Chandrika Kumaratunga after attacks on journalists.
Journalists, he argues, should be able to telephone anyone in the country; the fault lies
only in misusing the connection.
ගන්ධබ්බ තත්ත්වයකට පත්ව සිටින ජනමාධ්‍යවේදීන්
The Sirasa attack and Lasantha’s killing have frightened journalists, some of whom have already left the country, and many now speak of a terrible new era. Ivan argues it is not new: every administration since 1978 has done this. Under Jayewardene no mainstream paper criticised the government even over the opposition leader’s civic rights, the hooting of Supreme Court judges, or the pardon of Gonawala Sunil; only opposition papers did, and they were sealed and prosecuted for criminal defamation. Under Chandrika Kumaratunga, whom journalists helped bring to power, Satana’s editor Rohana Kumara was shot in circumstances close to Lasantha’s, and Lasantha himself was beaten and his house fired on. Yet the press has now cast her as saviour, and made Mangala Samaraweera — once the symbol of media repression, whose effigies they burned — the chief mourner. Journalists forget, and in forgetting protect the system.
කුණු වළේ බඩ පිනුම් ගැසීම
Ivan contrasts the international significance of the Human Rights Committee’s ruling on a newspaper’s fundamental rights petition with the way much of the Sri Lankan press ignored or belittled it. He describes how his struggle helped push the government to repeal criminal defamation, and calls for an end to the media’s habit of turning on whoever exposes a wrong.
නිල බලයට හෝ රාජ්‍ය බලයට සත්‍යය සදා යටපත් කළ නොහැකිය
Ivan welcomes the Human Rights Committee’s ruling as historic: the first time a Sri Lankan Supreme Court judgment in a fundamental rights case has been answered by an international body. He recounts the criminal defamation indictments brought against him before and after 1994, the Attorney General Sarath N. Silva’s role, the petition argued by Suranjith Hewamanne, his quarrel with Silva over the 1971 case, and other cases now before Geneva.
ශ්‍රී ලංකා ආණ්ඩුවට එරෙහිව – රාවය කර්තෘගේ පැමිණිල්ල: ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කමිටුවේ තීන්දුව
A Sinhala translation of the Views of the UN Human Rights Committee in Victor Ivan’s complaint against Sri Lanka (CCPR/C/81/D/909/2000) over the criminal defamation indictments brought against him. It sets out the complaint, the State party’s observations and the author’s replies on admissibility and merits, and the Committee’s findings.
නඩුත් හාමුදුරුවන්ගෙ බඩුත් හාමුදුරුවන්ගෙ
Ivan examines the Chief Justice’s disclosure to the Daily Mirror that the President took a second, secret oath before him in November 2000, arguing the constitution requires no such oath for a second term, as J.R. Jayewardene’s delayed 1983 swearing-in shows, and that it serves to extend her term to 2006. Further sections criticise her new media task force, contrasting her unkept 1994 promises with the Wickremesinghe government’s repeal of criminal defamation and draft Freedom of Information Act, and argue the Prime Minister lost ground by leaving the judiciary unreformed.
මංගලගේ බළලා මල්ලෙන් එළියට
Mangala Samaraweera’s call to abolish the executive presidency, Ivan argues, reflects the SLFP’s real aim of making Chandrika Kumaratunga an executive prime minister after her term ends, just as Ranil Wickremesinghe wants the presidency intact for himself. Further sections cover the Elections Commissioner’s criticism of the hastily passed 17th Amendment and of Supreme Court rulings, and the Editors’ Guild submission on contempt of court.
Media Reform
An interview with Ravaya editor Victor Ivan on media reform: the campaign to abolish criminal defamation, the proposed Freedom of Information Act, plans for a Media Training Institute, and his argument that Sri Lankan journalism has acted as a creator of disputes rather than an arbitrator of them.