Media legacy of a veteran journalist

A brief piece on the occasion of donation of the home library of veteran journalist Benedict Dodampegama to the Department of Mass Communication, University of Kelaniya.

"I want you to make use of my collection of books and periodicals collected during the thirty to forty years of my journalistic career. Please help your students and the staff to make the best benefit out of that collection," said Benedict Dodampegama who was the features editor and the investigative reporter to the two Sinhala newspapers Janata (the popular evening newspaper in the late fifties and sixties) and Silumina (Sunday Sinhala paper both of the Lake House).

I went to see him at his residence before his death one and a half years ago to Biyagama with a young Mass Communication senior lecturer, who was anxious in knowing the media career of Ben. Though ailing for some time he managed to talk to us clearly about some of his reminiscences, presumably a fruitful time spent in the capacity of a working journalist and later as an information specialist attached to the United States Information Centre, in Colombo.

"Since my university days, I was groomed to become a journalist, critic and a translator and the background was created by spending most of my time in reading and writing".

"So with this background, I was constantly supported by the best of senior Sinhala journalists of the time such as S. Subasinghe, Meemana Prematilake, Wimalasiri Perera and Piyasena Nissanka and some English editors of the calibre of Mervyn de Silva.

"They were committed to their professional functions from top to bottom and were equally good mannered human beings who had no special strings attached to any political parties, though they may have had their own likes and dislikes in politics," commented Ben sarcastically.

"What were your political leanings like in a broader sense of the term?" asked my friend the young lecturer for which the answer was a simple verdict full of questions.

"Haven't you got to ask the proper questions in order to get the proper answers? Like any other subject area, I have been asking questions about politics from the day I joined the profession as a journalist.

Then to my great dismay I found myself deserted in the field to the extent that I did not become a political writer instead became an investigative apolitical writer trying best to be with the people and report in the best possible manner, the trials and tribulations of their life. Shouldn't you do that? Isn't it my function as a media man? Haven't I travelled throughout the length and breadth of this country from the tip of Jaffna in the North to the landscapes of Devundara in the South? Haven't I written about the common masses as well as intellectuals?"

This, I felt, was a rare opportunity of a local journalist who in turn compiled those articles which appeared in the newspapers into the form of a book titled Sitagiyatan. As a film enthusiast Ben had not only spent his time seeing some of the best films screened but also utilized his time to read most of the books published at the time in English which culminated in authoring a Sinhala book titled Chitrapati Rasasvadanaya, which could be recorded as the first Sinhala book on film appreciation.

His encounter with the film maker, Lester James Peries happened to be one of the significant moments in his career. He was one of the live members in the team of film script discussion group formulated by Lester before launching the production project into action. Undoubtedly, Ben's mainstay of interest happened to be rested on film journalism mainly of film criticism with special reference to the creation of a better film script.

We came to know that he had also inspired the artist Mahagama Sekera to adapt the novel Tunmanhandiya into a film which later became one of the remarkable creations in the local cine scene.

"It is a matter of understanding the visual medium via literary appreciation and herein comes the importance of the script," Ben commented.

To his credit Ben had translated Akutagava's long short story into Sinhala titled Rashomon which became the source material for Kurasawa's well known film of the same title. Following this success he translated many more creative works and learned articles from such periodicals as Sight and Sound, Spectator, New Statesman, Encounter and New Scientist.

Most of these articles appeared in the first instance in Silumina and later in such books as Kalava Saha Kalakaruvo, Vidya Vichara, Jivana Sandarshana.

This was the tradition followed by most of the writers who contributed articles to newspapers as regular contributors and columnists.

Martin Wickramasinghe and W. A. de Silva were two such well known Sinhala writers who adhered to this tradition of compiling newspaper articles into books. After leaving the Lake House, Ben was seen busier than he was as an information specialist cum translator of books travelling in many parts of the world.

He was the editor of a Sinhala journal named Darshana. In the late sixties he came to see me in BBC Bush House, London, where I served a term of three years once as the managerial producer of the World Service's Sandesaya, Sinhala magazine programme, for which he contributed quite a number of informative bits and pieces inclusive of the latest film trends.

My good friend D. B. Nihalsinha was one of the participants we had in a discussion with Ben on the new trends in the world cinema. Ben went his way to Canada and few other parts of the world and returned to Sri Lanka and Nihal was asked to accept the post of the general manager of the newly established State Film Corporation.

After terminating my period of contract with the BBC, I too returned home destined to change my position from a radio programme producer to a university don. All these go to state just one event that happened on the 21st September 2005, at the University of Kelaniya. In keeping with the wish of the late Benedict Dodampegama, the friendly communicator, his dear wife Virginia donated his home library to the Department of Mass Communication.

The occasion was graced by the staff and well wishers. It was a rare treat for book lovers especially in the field of journalism and cinematography for there were a large number of valuable books and periodicals on those subject areas.

This was indeed a red letter day in the short history covering about twenty six years of the Department of Mass Communication.