Report entire parliamentary proceedings: Ranil tells media

Opposition United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday asked the Speaker to set guidelines for journalists who cover parliamentary proceedings and to make it mandatory for each newspaper to reserve a separate page for it.

He said there should be a mechanism to ensure that the people would have access to true and accurate reports on Parliamentary proceedings and stressed the need for the entire proceedings to be reported especially in the print media.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said one page should be set aside only to report Parliamentary proceedings and the English medium journals should do it just like it was done in the Sinhala and the Tamil journals.

“Some newspapers publish the speeches of a selected group of members but this is not accurate reporting of the proceedings,” he said and added that speeches made by back benchers in Parliament should also be reported in the newspapers.

“It is unfair to leave out the speeches of MPs in the back

Some newspapers publish the speeches of a selected group of members but this is not accurate reporting of the proceedings. Speeches made by back benchers in Parliament should also be reported in the newspapers

benches,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said. “There is no question why entire proceedings cannot be reported. It is always possible to do so.”

Mr. Wickremesinghe said it was unfair by the English-speaking people if the entire proceedings were not published.

He said photographs and not caricatures that should be carried in the newspapers.

“Daily Mirror has caricatures but it is better to have the photographs of members because that way they look more respectable than those seen in some of the staff photographs which are at times mistaken for caricatures,” he said citing an example.