චැනල් හතර
The documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, shown on Channel 4 on the 14th, has shaken not only foreigners who watched it but the Sri Lankan diaspora of both communities. Letting this question fester is very bad: it does enormous damage to Sri Lanka’s standing and puts Sri Lankans living in Western countries in a difficult position.
බුද්ධිමය අවංකභාවය හා බුද්ධිමතකුගේ සදාචාර අර්බුදය (ආචාර්ය සුනිල් විජේසිරිවර්ධනට පිළිතුරක්)
Ivan questioned one idea from Dr Sunil Wijesiriwardena’s interview, not to put him in difficulty but because he believed it would put a wrong view into a reader’s head. The reply came, and this is Ivan’s answer to the reply — which begins by noting that the reply insists repeatedly that it is not a reply.
දෙමළ ප්රශ්නය හා සුනිල් විජේසිරිවර්ධන
An interview with Dr Sunil Wijesiriwardena on the Tamil question appeared in the last Ravaya, and the purpose of this article is to question one idea in it — the idea that governs everything else he says there. The claim that no attempt was made to give a fair political settlement and that war was all that was done is, Ivan writes, entirely wrong.
රුවන් ජයතුංගගේ 71 කැරැල්ල ගැන
A psychiatrist has published an 855-page book on the 1971 insurrection under the title ‘The 71 Insurrection — a complete review from the beginning to the end’, priced at 1,500 rupees. Ivan knew the book was being written; what he did not know was that an interview of his had been included in it.
සංවර්ධනය හා ජනමාධ්යවේදීන්ගේ සමාජ වගකීම
By development Ivan means progress in any field — a country’s as a whole, or the economy, politics, health, transport, education, science, the environment, the spiritual — and what he wants to talk about is what a journalist’s part in that process should be. Seven sections follow, from Warren Buffett to the development of Colombo.
කිරි කළයට ගොම දැමීම
The prime minister told parliament during the emergency debate that the intelligence services had information about training at three secret camps in Tamil Nadu, aimed at killing Indian leaders and re-establishing the LTTE in Sri Lanka. If there is no true basis for it, Ivan replies, talk of that kind can do the country real harm — it can discourage the foreign investment Sri Lanka is hoping for.
ලංකා ඊ නිව්ස් කාර්යාලය ගිනි තැබීම
The savage attack on the Lanka e-News office should be condemned by the whole country: it is hard for it to have been done by anyone other than the government or people attached to it, and it disgraces not only the president and his government but the country. Ivan then says the other half of what he thinks, which is that the do-or-die reporting of many anti-government websites cannot be approved either.
බොරදියේ මාළු බෑම හා යුක්තිය මරා දැමීම
At a media ministry workshop for journalists a questioner raised something that interested the whole hall: why is Ivan silent now, when he used to fight? The article is his answer — that the people whose institutions are being attacked today are in part the people who did their back-door deals with the chief justice and killed justice when it mattered.
සිරසට එල්ල වූ ප්රහාරය හා ඉදිරිය දැකීම
The attack on Sirasa’s head office in Braybrooke Place makes an ugly picture for the government, which has clashed with the network since the war and appeared to want it punished. Whatever set off this second attack, it looks like a campaign by the government or people connected to it against a media house that backed the opposition at the presidential election. Ivan concedes the government could argue Sirasa obstructed the war — a state may suspend most fundamental rights in wartime, and the power to wage war rests with the state, not with journalists — and notes that the press did not obstruct the campaigns against the two JVP insurrections, saving criticism until afterwards. But the war ended more than six months ago and the President has since won the election too. Supporting Fonseka was not illegal, and the winner is the one who should let old grudges go.
ජනමාධ්යවල සමාජ වගකීම
The coarseness ruling Sri Lankan politics is equally visible in the media, and in the temple, the church and the courts. Journalists are the teachers of modern society, but teachers without learning, training or reading do damage. Television and radio carry almost nothing of intellectual value: political discussion programmes pick guests the way a cockfight picks birds, and a presenter succeeds by turning the discussion into a brawl. Stations chase audiences with giveaways rather than quality, some pushing the foolish belief that listening all day can make you a millionaire. Ivan argues the media could fill the gap left by the absence of career guidance in schools — European countries want skilled tradesmen more than professionals, and nurses trained here cannot work abroad because their training omits English. Channels teach French and Italian cooking; few Sri Lankans can cook rice properly or make a decent cup of tea.