Editors' "Right of Readers to Reply" resolves 278 complaints: PCCSL
The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL ) received 142 complaints last year, of which 85 were valid complaints falling within the purview of the PCCSL mechanism, with the editors publishing a ‘Right of Readers to Reply’ to 38 of them, PCCSL CEO, said in his annual report for 2015.
The report was read out at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Commission held this week at the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) auditorium in Colombo.
As many as 278 complaints were resolved directly by the editors providing a ‘ Right of Readers to Reply’ to the aggrieved parties, the report said.
CEO Sukumar Rockwood said the Sinhala press which is 43% of the country's newspapers, attracted most of the complaints. He said the Commission received the fullest cooperation from the editors to resolve these complaints amicably and swiftly.
The report further stated that four English language and two Sinhala language newspapers however, did not cooperate with the PCCSL, which is a voluntary, self-regulatory body of the newspaper industry having the support of the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka (NSSL), the Editors' Guild, the Free Media Movement (FMM), the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association (SLWJA) and four other media organisations including a trade union. They are the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union, Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and the South Asian Free Media Association - Sri Lanka Chapter.
The report said the PCCSL's autonomous Dispute Resolution Council headed by former Secretary General of Parliament, Nihal Seneviatne, met bi-monthly to inquire into complaints that required their attention.
Lankadeepa Editor, Siri Ranasinghe, Nawamani Editor, N.M. Ameen, and Deshaya Chief SubEditor, Mohanlal Piyadasa, were re- elected to the PCCSL's Board of Directors, by the general membership of the PCCSL at the AGM.
The other members of the Board of Directors representing separate media organisations are Kumar Nadesan (Chairman, nominated by SLPI), Sinha Ratnatunga (Deputy Chairman, nominated by the Editors' Guild of Sri Lanka), Manik de Silva (nominated by the SLPI), Nimal Welgama (nominated by the NSSL), B.M. Murshideen (nominated by the FMM) and Duminda Sampath (nominated by the SLWJA).
Meanwhile, the SLPI also held its 13th AGM this week at its office in Colombo, attended by representatives of its stakeholders comprising the NSS, The Editors' Guild, the FMM and the SLWJA.
Presenting the annual report of the institution, SLPI CEO, Kumar Lopez noted that, in 2015, the SLPI had conducted several meetings with local and international bodies to promote professionalism in journalism.
The key achievement of last year was the outcome of the long-fought struggle by the Board and the management to enact the Right to Information (RTI) Bill, which was unanimously passed by Parliament on June 24, 2016. The SLPI in this regard, has lobbied with key decision makers and conducted several awareness programmes during 2015 in its training and discussions in the provinces with various groups of people.
Several projects were also implemented in association with foreign missions and organisations in Norway, Denmark, US and Britain namely, Open Society Foundation, International Media Support, Thomson Foundation, WANIFRA (World Association of Newspapers), and CANSA (Climate Action Network South Asia). Mr. Lopez further said that, support, mainly through logistical assistance, had been extended to The Editors' Guild to organise and conduct the annual ' Excellence in Journalism' awards.
He reported the SLPI had also hosted an International Conference on Global Media Ethics, which brought together local and international speakers, academics, journalists, researchers and subject matter experts. Furthermore, the SLPI, along with the Colombo University, Strategic Alliance for Research & Development, UNESCO, and International Media Support was involved in conducting islandwide research to understand the media landscape based on the UNESCO Media Development Indicator framework. It is believed this research would help identify gaps in the media domain and help bring in the needed reforms for the betterment of journalists and the media as a whole.
The SLPI board comprises Kumar Nadesan (Chairman) of the Newspaper Society, Sinha Ratnatunga (Vice Chairman), Manik de Silva and Mohanlal Piyadasa of the Editors' Guild, Seetha Ranjanee, Hana Ibrahim and Udaya Kalupathirana of the FMM and Lasantha Ruhunage and Kanchana Marasinghe of the SLWJA.