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| Wednesday, 29 September 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| 'Media could be worst instrument of vengeance in hands of the unscrupulous' by P. D. A. S. Gunasekera, Ratnapura Group correspondent The Media profession the world over was one of the noble vocations and in some countries even the highest paid one, when handled conscientiously and responsibly by the experts in the field," said the Minister of Samurdhi and Poverty Alleviation Pavithra Wanniaratchi at Ratnapura recently. "But, it could, as often happens to be the worst instrument of vengeance, in the hands of the unscrupulous, she said. She was addressing the Provincial Media Conference - cum - workshop at the District Secretariat, Ratnapura New Town. The objectives of the event were the development of methodology for the free and fair flow of the State information to the public and the education of the provincial Media professionals, with the building of their language skills and knowledge, establishing a closer relationship between the Media and the State Institutions. The Minister, recounting a painful experience of a false-report, carried in a weekly newspaper, some years back, said that her timely action made the Editor of the 'paper' to withdraw the offending story and publish an apology along with a letter of protest on the incident. (not of the Lake House). Hence the importance of investigative reporting - for the 'Media-watch,' is an absolutely prime need, to prevent the 'innocent' from getting their good names tarnished by any careless and vindictive writings, she added. President's Counsel, D. P. Mendis speaking on the Human Rights and the Media pointed out the importance of the sections 5-12, and 18-21, of the Human Rights Chapter of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, which safeguarded the public from slander and mischievous personal attacks. The media men educate in the laws relating to the Media especially, section 22 and 29 of the Constitution to enable them to escape the legal consequences of careless vindictive and wrong-reporting, he added. Divaina Editor Gamini Sumanasekara explained the significance of the investigation reporting in both press and the electronic media, with illustrative drawn from various fields of reporting. The Chairman, SLBC Hudson Samrasinghe, enlightened the gathering on the 'sources of news' and their correct presentation, with reference to the Kremlin-conspiracy of 1991, Dr. Athugalpura spoke on the Media Hegemony and Culture. The Minister of Justice, W. D. J. Seneviratne ceremonially opened the conference which ended after a panel discussion with a practical demonstration on the use and mis-use of the camera and its techniques, in the field of reporting. |
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