WITCH-HUNT IN JET AGE

It was coincidence that after weeks of talk about a media ethics regime which the government stiffly denied trying to impose anyway, that none other than the Media Minister was seen to be aggrieved by what is after all a media ethics issue. Minister Keheliya Rambukwella gave a no holds barred interview to this newspaper yesterday, and said that the local media is unfairly targeting his son. He went to some lengths to explain why he thought so.

If anybody says that the Minister will naturally be inclined to defend his son, there is still the issue of perspective in this matter that has nothing to do with a ‘patriarch-scion’ filial relationship.

The issue in simple terms is trial by media. The best way to begin that discussion is by citing a case in point -- that’s reflective of the witch-hunting lunacy of the Sri Lankan media commentariat.

One writer took it upon herself last week to comment on the Rambukwella issue. She proceeded to do so in her usual hectoring bully-pulpit style, but that was to be expected. She didn’t have to go beyond three paragraphs however, to make her motive glaringly obvious; facts be damned, she was in search of any argument that could hurt her pet hate -- the incumbent regime.

When she truly outdid herself was in stating that there would have been an ‘international incident’ had the cabin door opened after the player tugged, with passengers losing their lives, pitching Sri Lanka into a maelstrom of international opprobrium.

Now, any moron except that moron who would have been following this issue the past week would have known -- had he or she not known before -- that it is humanly impossible to open the cabin door of an aircraft at an altitude of 35,000 feet.

It just cannot be done -- the difference in cabin pressure and the air pressure outside sees to that, and that’s verifiable fact that was moreover asserted by the British Airways flight crew of the particular aircraft who said ‘there was never any danger whatsoever to the passengers.’ They also added that they accepted the passenger’s assertion that he was looking for the washroom in dim cabin lights, and hence they did not think it was necessary to pursue any further course of action.

What’s beyond doubt anyhow is that anybody who could not get that part right about the cabin pressure and the zero chance of the door opening, was obviously a certifiable moron who does not deserve to write in newspapers or so called news websites pontificating about politics, men matters and all else.

This however has been essentially the calibre of the one track ghoul-media that has been perusing this issue to milk it to the maximum for its political sex appeal to (a.) sell newspapers, and (b.) find a stick to beat the government with.

We daresay people might expect this newspaper to be cavalier about the ministerial scion’s alleged behaviour for the usually cited reasons! But that criticism will not detract us from putting this issue in perspective, as always what’s right is more important than personalities, politics and the background noise.

The fact remains that be it beggar on the street or ministerial scion, every man is presumed innocent until proven guilty and there cannot be trial by media as every person is entitled to a fair hearing on the issue before others write reams of malign invective about what is supposed to have happened.

We daresay that nobody necessarily has to be believed here, pressman, commentator, minister or son. What’s important on the contrary is that nobody can be maligned until there is a due process of inquiry, and a fair hearing giving due weightage to the alleged offending party’s version, which will either exonerate the player of any misbehaviour, or find him to some degree in the wrong. And we dare add, if he is found in the wrong, punish him in a way of course that fits the crime.

What do we have here, though, on the contrary? One London Telegraph newspaper story that says that a passenger ‘saw the whole thing’ which adds however that the player acknowledged his mistake, which prompted the flight crew to say ‘that’s the end of that.’ CAN YOU HANG A DEAD RAT WITH THAT KIND OF EVIDENCE? Not that it matters to our ethically challenged commentariat.

It’s known that the mills of justice gird slowly but they surely do grind. These commentators without sin who have cast these heavy first stones are bound to have their just desserts when one day they are the victims not the perpetrators in an ethically-challenged media gone mad. It will be poetic, when inevitably, and eventually -- those tables get turned …