Damning COPA report on the way, said to be more damning than COPE

Stanley Samarasinghe
Committee of Public Accounts Chairman (COPA) Minister Rauff Hakeem has warned that the COPA report which will be released shortly, will be far worse than that of the Committee of Public Enterprises (COPE).
The committee is tasked to probe managerial efficiency and financial discipline of the government, its ministries, departments, provincial councils and local authorities.

Speaking on “Ethnic Polarisation and Media freedom” at a meeting held in Colombo on Monday, Minister Hakeem said he was personally against corruption. He believed that journalists must have the freedom to expose corruption in the country and was thus supporting the report of Iqbal Athas.

He said this in response to a question directed at him as to whether the minister was supporting the report of journalist Athas.

“It is very vital to deal with this topic as our country is faced with a conflict on ethnic issues. In such a situation, the media has to maintain an unbiased balance in reporting so that we can reach a reasonable solution to the issues we are confronted with,” he emphasised. He pointed out that the country faced two tragedies; the tsunami and the ethnic conflict. Both events pose an immense challenge to the media. “The question is how the media will face these challenges without bias and continue to maintain balanced reporting.”

Hakeem emphasised that Sri Lanka had a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.

“The recent report of SAFMA recommended that the Sri Lanka media forms a media base monitoring board to make regulations for balanced reporting, as well as to deal with harassment and intimidation to media personnel.

“Many prominent journalists have been killed. In recent years. It is a well-known fact that after the nationalisation of Lake House, the two main political parties manipulated the state media while they were in power,” he noted.

The Minister accused the JVP too of being responsible for the harassment and murders of journalists. Hakeem claimed that the LTTE too has intimidated and killed reporters in the past, and is continuing to do so.
“When examining the conduct of media personnel in the context of polarisation, it is evident that the state media is giving a one-sided view. The excuse given for this is that the private media is more opposition-friendly. Hence it was necessary that the state media should also be allowed to give its version to the public. This excuse however is not valid because the state media has to cater to the opposition as well,” he said.
He emphasised that the importance of the role of the private media in giving balanced coverage to news in order to create a healthy atmosphere to the country and to pave the way for peace..

Expressing his personal opinion, Hakeem observed that journalists in the mainstream Sinhala media when reporting the war, tended to write with the intention of supporting the morale of the forces. The Tamil media, on the other hand, always avoided any political opinion critical of LTTE.

“After the death of Gangodawila Soma Thera, the Sinhala press continuously published allegations against the Christians in the country, virtually blaming them for the death.in the Bindunuwewa incident. This proved there was a definite bias on the part of the Sinhala press. Hence it was important for the media organisation as a whole , to formulate proper regulations that would ensure unbiased, balanced and responsible journalism,” he emphasised.