Edmund Ranasinghe hailed for his journalistic revolution
The Divaina newspaper's founding editor, Edmund Ranasinghe, who made a transformative change in journalism, was felicitated on Tuesday at a presidential secretariat ceremony presided over by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The 93-year-old veteran journalist’s life’s work has been appreciated, and his service to journalism was celebrated at the event. A book titled Edmundge Paththara
Viplawaya (The Newspaper Revolution of Edmund), composed of articles by other newspaper editors and journalists, was also launched at the event.
President Wickremesinghe handed over the first copy of the book to Mr Ranasinghe.
The President said Mr Ranasinghe, who counts more than seven decades in journalism, worked towards the social, economic, and political betterment of the country.
He said the landscape of print media is undergoing significant changes. Journalism, which once relied on lead type, has evolved to include tools like the iPad. He said future media will need to keep pace with advancing technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).
Technology has become an invaluable tool for journalism, he said. He pointed out that the media in the country in those days abided by the country's laws, but today online and social media have no policing. They say anything. There is a huge issue in the European Union on this subject, while other countries, including Sri Lanka, are trying to see how this online media needs to be regulated.
“Are they ready for an international agreement or abide by their respective national laws? It would mostly happen with the progress of the European Union. This is creating a problem for the newspaper industry, with the print media being the worst affected. On the other hand, television is also affected. Radio is safe for the moment, but what will happen afterwards? If AI is there, do we need anyone here? How many people are needed for a newspaper office with the introduction of AI? These are questions for the future of the media industry," the President said.
Delivering the keynote address, Upali Tennakoon, former editor-inchief of the Divaina and Rivira newspapers and one-time secretary of the Editors Guild, said Mr Ranasinghe considered his work a service and held the belief that awards were of little significance.
Mr Tennakoon added that Mr Ranasinghe was also a great mentor to many prominent figures in today’s media industry.
He said that as a news editor and an editor-in-chief, Mr Ranasinghe would often ask journalists working under him to revise their articles multiple times until they were perfect. He added that most prominent figures in the field would vouch for his high standards.
Mr Ranasinghe began his media journey at Lake House in 1952 and resigned in 1973 in protest against the government’s takeover of the Lake House newspapers.
In 1977, he returned to Lake House as the editor of Dinamina and also became editor at Silumina later. In 1981, he became the founding editor of Divaina at Upali Newspapers. After retirement, he was asked to be a consultant editor for Silumina newspaper.
Mr Tennakoon said that Mr Ranasinghe’s ideology was not to overwhelm readers with filling pages but to create an intelligent readership. During his career, he had two objectives: to increase reader interest and to nurture an intelligent readership.
Prof Sunanda Madduma Bandara, the editor of the book, also spoke. Assisting him in editing were the President’s Media Director W M K Wijayabandara and Deputy Media Director Deepti Adhikari.
The landscape of print media is undergoing significant changes. Technology has become an invaluable tool for journalism