Background
Five media organizations issued a joint statement on 23rd May 2008 condemning the assault on Mr. Keith Noyahr, Deputy Editor of the The Nation newspaper. Subsequently a protest campaign was also held to urge the government to bring the culprits to Justice.
One of the organizations - the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association was represented by two Journalists working for the lake house group. These protests seems to have upset the Defence Secretary who reportedly summoned the two state media Journalists for a "discussion", during which he is said to have "reminded" the duo that the Establishments Code (E-Code) prevents them from criticizing the government. The Director-General of the Media Center for National Security (MCNS) in a subsequent press briefing also expressed the same view.
The E-Code
The Establishments Code is a set of rules and regulations which deal with the conduct of Public Officers. According to its own definitions it is only applicable to Public Officers in government departments and Ministries. It does not apply to those employed in other state institutions such as Universities, Public Corporations and State-Owned companies.
The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limitied (ANCL), in which these two journalists are employed is a state-owned limited liability public company and as such the Establishments Code does not apply to them.
Even for Public Officers, the Establishments Code cannot override Constitutional Provisions which guarantee freedom of expression. The Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land. The Restrictions placed on the freedom of expression on Public Officers must be reasonable, justifiable and in the public interest.
The Catch: Is the Government behind the Abduction??
Even assuming that the E-Code does apply to employees of ANCL, the two journalists have merely condemned the attack on Mr. Noyahr and urged the state to bring the culprits to Justice.
The only way that such a statement could amount to "criticism of the government" is if the government itself was responsible for the attack!! In saying that the two journalists have violated the Establishments code, the Defence Secretary and the Director-General of the MCNS, have in the process, tacitly admitted the government's own culpability in this despicable act.
Daily Mirror: State media can’t protest says MCNS
Original article: http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=...
By Kurulu Kariyakarawana
Media Centre for National Security Director General Lakshman Hulugalle charged yesterday Government employees including Lake House journalists cannot criticise Government policies no matter what their position is and it could be considered as a grave crime to do so.
He said that though fundamental rights are enjoyed by any other citizen, Government servants cannot criticise the policies adopted by the Government as it is clearly stated so in the Establishment Code.
Mr. Hulugalla was referring to the acts of two Lake House journalists who are office bearers of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association criticising the alleged Government suppression of media freedom.
Addressing the weekly media briefing held at the Media Centre for National Security presided by Government Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella, Mr. Hulugalla said
Government servants and especially the State owned media can never come up with their independent opinions especially when it related to State policies.
He was responding to a journalist who alleged that Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had intimidated two Lake House journalists Sanath Balasuriya and Poddala Jayantha who also hold positions in the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association as president and secretary general.
The journalist claimed that those two scribes had been summoned by the Defence Secretary on Monday and had allegedly been warned for their involvement in agitating for freedom of expression as well as for criticising the Government and its defence policies.
Mr. Hulugalla, who was also present at the meeting, denied the allegation of intimidation and said that it was only a discussion between the two parties which had lasted for close to two hours. He said, at a media protest campaign held last week to condemn the brutal assault on The Nation Associate Editor Keith Noyahr, Mr. Balasuriya had criticised Government policies on conducting the war.
The Director said Sanath Balasuriya being a Lake House journalist, who he claimed is a Government servant, cannot criticise the Government.
“I myself being the Director General of this media centre cannot put forward my own views when it comes to sensitive State issues,” he said.
Mr. Hulugalla also said Mr. Balasuriya used the protest held for Mr. Noyahr, to put forward his views to attack Government policies.
Responding to this statement many journalists raised the question as to whether Lake House is a State entity for the Government to consider its journalists as Government servants who had to refrain from giving their views on issues.
Mr. Hulugalla responded that he is not aware whether it is State owned or whether it is in the custody of the Public Trustee but said Government servants cannot criticise State policies.
Meanwhile, responding to questions relating to the abduction and assault of The Nation Associate Editor, Minister Rambukwella said Mr. Noyhar is not being supportive with the detectives so far.
He said it is difficult to carry out a full-scale investigation without the support of the victim where Mr. Noyhar has refused to speak anything about what had happened to him.
“We are trying our level best to conduct this investigation accurately and impartially and we are ready to facilitate him with whatever security he needs. But if he does not support us by at least by giving a statement, we have to do the investigation with the available evidence,” Mr. Rambukwella said.
An open letter to Gotabhaya
Five leading media organisations yesterday sent a letter to the Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa expressing their shock and grave concern over the alleged reprimand of senior journalists Sanath Balasuriya and Poddala Jayantha.
The letter has been sent following an encounter between the two journalists and the Defence Secretary on Monday when the journalists were reportedly reprimanded by the Mr. Rajapaksa.
The Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association, the Sri Lanka Tamil
An open letter...
Journalists’ Association, the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, the Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Unions and the Free Media Movement are the five organisations.
The letter states that the Defence Secretary’s alleged action is unprecedented
“We are outraged by your thinly veiled repeatedly expressed threat that the lives of Sanath Balasuriya and Poddala Jayantha would be in grave danger should they continue to defend the right to independent reportage critical of the military and the regime. Clearly, it is a problem that you see no problem in such odious expression. At a time when the President and his government seek to assure us that all is well, with the protection and fullest enjoyment of fundamental rights in Sri Lanka, your behaviour – and not for the first time – is a significant marker of the ground reality and the challenges facing free media and human rights,” the letter said.
“Your assertion that journalists who work in State media cannot engage in criticism of those in the government and the armed forces is particularly revealing. It is regrettable that you consider the primary and overarching function of State media to be one that is unquestioningly supportive of the regime and whatever it does, says and thinks. We consider this position to be violently opposed to media freedom and the freedom of expression,” the letter further said.
Daily Mirror: Media Minister rejects ‘Hulugalle doctrine’
Original article: http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=...
Media Minister Anura Priyadharashana Yapa yesterday contradicted MCNS Director General Lakshman Hulugalle’s statement and assured that even state media personnel had the right to freedom of expression.
“Even state media personnel have the right to join any association and freely express their ideas and views,” Mr. Yapa told a news briefing after the Cabinet meeting.
Minister Yapa said media freedom was upheld as government policy and the government had made no changes to this policy.
At a news conference on Wednesday the Media Centre for National Security Director General Lakshman Hullagalle made a controversial and highly publicized statement that public servants including Lake House journalists had no right to criticize government policies. He made these remarks in response to questions as to how and why Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa had summoned two Lake House journalists and reprimanded them for expressing views against government policy on the war. The journalists concerned are leaders of journalists’ unions and they expressed their views at a demonstration to protest the abduction and brutal assault on The Nation newspaper’s associate editor Keith Noyahr. YP
Hullugalle insists he is correct
The National Security Media Centre Director Lakshman Hulugalle yesterday reiterated his stand on the state media. He insisted that they had no freedom of expression with regard to sensitive state polices. When asked his opinion of the statement made by Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, that even state media personnel had the right to express their ideas and views freely, Mr. Hulugalla said what he (Mr. Hulugalle) had said about it at the weekly defence media briefing had not changed. “The statement I made about journalists attached to the state media, on behalf of the Defence Ministry, has not changed,” he said. K.K.