ABC MD in hot water for misleading Court: Petition dismissed
Wasantha Ramanayake
The Supreme Court yesterday released on Rs. 250,000 cash bail Asian
Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Managing Director Raynor Silva for
misleading the court while dismissing the rights application filed by
his company.
The Court refused to grant Leave to Proceed upholding the preliminary
objections of the respondents that the broadcasting licence of the
petitioner company was not valid and that the company had suppressed
vital information.
Deputy Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando took up the preliminary
objection that broadcasting licence issued to the petitioner was void
since it was issued to the petitioner prior to its incorporation.
Therefore Leave to Proceed should not be granted to the petitioner’s
application.
The Court ruled that the licence granted to Hiru, Sha, Gold, Sun and
Sooriyan FM of the company was not valid. Nihal Jayamanna PC for the
respondent Minister argued that petitioner’s channels were entertainment
channels and not permitted to broadcast news.
The Chief Justice directed the petitioner to make an application for
a broadcasting licence to the relevant authorities, who would consider
the same subject to strict conditions i.e. the petitioner’s channels
would not be permitted to broadcast news, “even in the form of songs.”
The court ordered Raynor Silva to appear before court on November 26
to explain why he had misled the court in the pleadings of his
affidavit.
“Is it any wonder they lied to seven million of their listeners when
they lied to the highest Court of the land,” observed Chief Justice
Sarath N. Silva PC. The court noted that a pleading in the affidavit
submitted by the Managing Director of the petitioner was false. The
court found that the transcript of the purported news item submitted by
the petitioner to the court was not accurate.
The Court further noted that one sentence stating that several people
were killed by the LTTE was not in the transcript provided to the Court.
Deputy Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando for the second respondent
played the audio CD recording of the news broadcast of the petitioner’s
radio channel at 7.56 pm which clearly stated that several villagers
were murdered by LTTE.
Referring to the occasion of opening of the new court house in Jaffna
the CJ noted that “the occasion was friendly, even the LTTE had some
regard for law and order that they did not fire mortars although the
court premises was within their range.”
“This is while certain others here in Colombo try to get political
advantage at the cost of the lives of the Tamils living in harmony over
sensitive issues.
Had communal violence broken out as result of propagating such false
news what would have been the fate of these innocent Tamils?” he
queried.
He noted that if the petitioner was really concerned about peace it
would not have reported highly sensitive issues in a highly
irresponsible manner. Counsel Sanjeewa Jayawardane for the petitioners
submitted that allegation was that the news broadcast created panic
among the people living in the area.
He submitted that most of the radio channels had given wide publicity
to the incident. But the petitioner was singled out for the
discriminatory treatment by withdrawing their licence.
Deputy Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando took up the preliminary
objection that broadcasting licence issued to the petitioner was void
since it was issued to the petitioner prior to its incorporation.
Therefore Leave to Proceed should not be granted to the petitioner’s
application.
Nihal Jayamanna PC for the respondent Minister argued that
petitioner’s channels were entertainment channels and not permitted to
broadcast news.
He submitted that the petitioner’s channels falsely propagated that
several people had been killed by a group of LTTE terrorists and panic
stricken villagers in the south of Sri Lanka hid themselves in jungles.
The President’s counsel further submitted that the petitioner had
falsely sated that they had their fist news broadcast at 8.01 whereas
they actually broke the purported news at 7.56 pm and subsequently
repeated the same twice
He submitted that the petitioners would never imagine the
difficulties the people had to undergo due to the irresponsible news
item.
He submitted that there were hundreds of people gathered outside the
hospital hearing the petitioner’s news item to witness the bodies of
those villagers who had been murdered by the LTTE as reported.
President’s Counsel Nihal Jayamanne with Ananda Nanayakkara and
Rasanga Harischandra instructed by Athula de Silva appeared for the
Media Minister.
Deputy Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando with SSC Nerin Pulle
appeared for the second respondent Ministry Secretary.
President’s Counsel Palitha Kumarasinghe with I. Idroos appeared for
the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission and its Director General. |