REPORTING REPORTS ETC.,
The political relevance of the impeachment saga is one thing,
but the coverage of the issue in national media is an entirely
different matter. On Thursday, the President along with some of
his key ministers who were members of the Parliamentary Select
Committee (PSC) hearing charges against the CJ Shirani
Bandranayake, met Editors of national media.
The PSC members spoke on several issues. A great deal dwelt
on the procedural aspects of the entire impeachment saga. These
matters were duly covered in the national media. It was reported
with a certain almost palpable sense of palm-rubbing glee that
the independent commission spoken of by the President was only
procedural etc.
But, if a reader compared the coverage in this newspaper of
that event for instance, with most of the other national dailies
particularly of the English language press, he might wonder
whether those from the other newspapers covered an Editors
meeting held in a different planet.
None of the significant coverage in the national media dwelt
on the cardinal revelation by the members of the PSC that the
Chief Justice of this country had availed herself of a 1.5
million discount on a purchase of a house from the Ceylinco
group of companies, whole allied company Golden Key was the
respondent party to some very crucial litigation in her court.
The readers of this newspaper are aware of the story, and
there is no need for repetition here. National dailies however
chose to scream about the independent panel and similar matters,
though omitting to articulate by so much as a whisper, the
under-oath testimony of a Ceylinco official about the CJ
purchasing a discounted house from Ceylinco. Also, not one word
of mention about the fact that Minister Wimal Weerawansa
asserted that it was the hard earned money of the depositors who
sweated abroad for their small fortunes that the CJ was holding
to ransom, by a cosy deal with the crashed and now embattled
company.
No, the story did not have to be the front page headline in
national dailies, if an informed decision was taken by whoever
ran the institutions that other procedural concerns took
priority over the story on the discount. But, not one single
front page mention, not one front page paragraph in the entire
national media about the1.5 million discount while CJ was
hearing the Golden Key case?
Yet, omitting to mention key pieces of the conference
proceedings with the editors didn't prick any consciences,
judging by what some of the newspapers that reported these
events had as editorial comment.
Said some that the President of this country had repudiated
the PSC report, dropped it as if it was a hot potato. If a mere
solicitation of a second opinion constitutes an act of
abandonment, doctors will have to ask their patients 'if you
want a second son, does that mean that you are rejecting your
first-born boy ...?'
Asking for a second opinion is something that is done out of
an abundance of caution, and as the President explained, it is
part of regular process, and is not in the nature of some
extraordinary decision to reject Committee investigations.
The President is a lawyer. 'An abundance of caution' is
something that students of the law are familiar with to the
point of being bored with that expression. But, that is how it
is -- an abundance of caution is prescribed in law, and it is
regular above-board practice.
But to the newspaper men and women of Sri Lanka, apparently,
a second opinion is equivalent to an abortion, it seems.
Again, it is worth some extra stress on the point that nobody
is advising the media - - at large - - about the placement of
their stories. But, if there is such a dire need for slant, does
the slanting have to be so conspicuous?
Particularly, when there is no mention of the fact that the
CJ by walking out of the Select Committee process may have
accepted all charges against her by default. Even the most
sympathetic in Geneva for instance would be hard put to accept
that she didn't present a case for exoneration, at the available
forum, purely due to the cited reasons of 'process.'
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