How page one proof was taken to Temple Trees

Let me tell you what happened to me in November 1994. As a senior Deputy Editor I was in charge of the night edition of the Daily News that night as Editor Manik de Silva was hospitalised. I had to cover an urgent press conference Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga held at 7:00 that night at Visumpaya.

The briefing was held, to reply to the UNP charge of collusion between the SLFP and the LTTE, in the assassination of Presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake. He had been killed by a suicide bomber a few days earlier at a campaign meeting in Colombo.

The main part of the briefing was devoted to the denial of the collusion accusation. At the tail end the briefing, one of my Lake House colleagues asked the question, “There is a rumour about some Army moves against the Government. Is there any truth in it?”

Chandrika Kumaratunga replied,” I have not heard of any such rumour. The Army is with us. We have full confidence in the Army”.

When I returned to office it was past 9:00 p.m. I hurriedly wrote the story about the denial, and the chief sub editor Saundranayagam sent it as lead with a catchy headline.

Then I wrote a separate story about the army rumour, and instructed Saundranayagam to use it as the side lead in the next edition.

When I went home and was having dinner around midnight, the telephone rang. My wife who answered it told me the caller was Mr. Ashraff.

Mr Ashraff told me, “The Prime Minister had set up a media cabinet sub-committee with Kadirgamar as the Chairman. I am a member. Dharmasiri Senanayake and Bala are the other members.” By Bala he meant the Prime Minister’s Secretary Balapatabendi. Then he said, “We have decided to have the Prime Minister’s statement about the government having full confidence in the Army as the lead in all the Lake House morning papers. Are you leading with that story?”

“No,” I said. “We are leading with the denial story.”

“Can you go to office and change the lead?”

“No. It’s the editor who decides on the lead. I was only acting for the editor. I decided to lead with the denial story.”

“We think that the statement relating to the denial of the rumour is important.”

I decided to avoid arguing with one of my good news contacts, so I said, “Even if I agree to change the lead now, the first edition of the paper would have already been printed.”

Then Ashraff gave me the greatest shock of my life. “No. The paper has not been printed.”

“How do you know that ”

“We have ordered Saundranayagam to stop the press.”

“How can you do that?” I asked. It looked that he too wanted to avoid an argument. So he said, “Bala wants to speak to you,” and allowed Balpatabendi, the Prime Minister’s Secretary to speak to me.

Balapatabendi said, “You must know that the Prime Minister’s statement about the Government having full confidence in the Army is important to the Government.”

“I know that. That is why I wrote a separate story on that.”

“But that is not in the page proof.”

“How do you know that?”

“We have the proof with us.”

“How did you get it?”

Your night editor is here with us with the proof.”

“Is it Saundranayagam?”

After asking Saundranayagam his name he replied, “Yes.”

“Can I talk to Saundranayagam?”

He was called to the telephone. He told me he was taken to the Temple Trees with the proof. He confirmed that the press had been stopped.

I did not know what to do. The paper must be printed. The time was past midnight. I asked Saundranayagam to give the telephone to Balapatabendi. I asked him, “Did you inform the Chairman?”

The Chairman of Lake House at that time was Lionel Fernando, the highly respected former civil servant.

Balapatabendi replied, “Now there is no time for all that. The paper must come out.”

I told Saundranayagam to get back to office and send the vehicle to fetch me as his vehicle had the curfew pass, which was on.

I went back to Lake House, changed the lead and printed the paper.

The next day Ajith Samaranayake met me and obtained details of what happened. He was a member of the Government media group. He raised the matter that evening at the media group that met at Temple Trees. Samaranayake told me afterwards that the Prime Minister had admitted that it had been a mistake, and agreed to disband the media cabinet sub-committee.

Two days later I met Kadirgamar and Dharmasiri Senanayake at the SLFP headquarters where I went to cover a function. I protested to them about taking the page proof out of Lake House, and taking a senior journalist to the Temple Trees.

Both of them apologised for what had happened. Ashraff and Balapatabendi apologised later on separate occasions. They were gentlemen.

There are several instances when Lake House editors and editorial staff resisted the dictates of powerful ministers and their more dominating wives. An editor went home in protest when a former President tried to pull him up for printing an article critical of the head of an Asian country, who he said, was his friend. He had to send a senior minister to pacify the editor and bring him back. A minister who sent his media officer with the request that he should be referred in news stories as ‘Hon. Minister,’ was sent back with the reply, “First of all ask him to be honourable.” The minister concerned was known to be corrupt.

The wife of a powerful minister telephoned and asked that she be referred to as ‘Madam so and so’ in the news item she sent. The reply she got from a woman journalist was, “They call me also ‘Madam’. They call all and sundry Madam. So calling you ‘Mrs. So and So’ is something special.”