{"id":124059,"date":"2014-05-04T00:05:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T18:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=124059"},"modified":"2014-05-11T00:17:36","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T18:47:36","slug":"what-must-be-said-will-be-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/what-must-be-said-will-be-said\/","title":{"rendered":"What Must Be Said Will Be Said"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday was World Press Freedom Day. It is a time for reflection about the status of these freedoms or their absence in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

In this Age of Information, Sri Lankan journalists do not have the privilege of Freedom of Information legislation that would give access to information on important issues and mega projects.\u00a0\u00a0The manifest reluctance to open the doors to scrutiny implies that there are things to hide.\u00a0\u00a0There are other more tangible obstacles.\u00a0\u00a0There is threat and its execution.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s gagging, direct and subtle. There is self-censorship wrought by these things.<\/p>\n

Journalists themselves don’t make things easy when they lie and mislead, when media freedom advocates violate principles of transparency and accountability. \u00a0Journalists have suffered rather than benefited from outfits such as the Free Media Movement for these very reasons.\u00a0 Just the other day, for example, an NGO called \u2018Freedom House<\/span><\/a>\u2019 ranked Sri Lanka 167th<\/sup> out of 198 countries with respect to \u2018freedom of the press\u2019.\u00a0 An outfit called \u2018Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice\u2019 claims that 34 Sri Lankan journalists were killed.\u00a0 The former makes calculations based on organizations like the latter.\u00a0 Now if we don\u2019t factor in the credentials of the relevant information providers then we have reliability compromised.<\/p>\n

If someone wears the journalist hat now and terrorist cap later and happens to be killed in counter-terrorist operations, we can choose to call the victim \u2018journalist\u2019 or \u2018terrorist\u2019.\u00a0 Our choice is framed by ideological and outcome preferences.\u00a0 If in description and naming the necessary qualifiers are kept hidden we don\u2019t do justice to our vocation.\u00a0 And when the unjust champion the just cause of press freedom, it only shows how poor we are.\u00a0 If, moreover, the unjust also happen to be embezzlers who don\u2019t give a hoot to the transparency and accountability they demand from governments, it makes matters still worse.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the antics of self-appointed advocates of press freedom, regardless of the fact that some of them are rogues, they cry they raise remains valid.<\/p>\n

We want things changed. \u00a0We want protective and enabling legislation.\u00a0 We demand these things because no oppressor ever voluntarily concedes anything to the oppressed.\u00a0That\u2019s what Martin Luther King (jr) said.\u00a0 True. And demands have a better chance of yielding something tangible if the oppressed stand together.\u00a0 Those numbers count.\u00a0 A single individual, after all, is not a front.<\/p>\n

And yet Rosa Parks, on December 1, 1955 decided to object to segregation laws in Montgomery.\u00a0 She was an individual. She continued to sit in a bus when ordered to stand and make way for a white passenger.\u00a0 She sat down for freedom and thereafter others African Americans stood up for freedom all over the United States of America.\u00a0 There was advocacy in her act of defiance. There was also \u2018doing\u2019; there was \u2018walking the talk\u2019.\u00a0 Even as she sat.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lesson there for all of us.<\/p>\n

Journalists do not have to wait on the largesse of, the powerful.\u00a0 Even as they agitate for freedoms, it is incumbent upon them to rehearse that freedom and desist from that which could compromise their cause.\u00a0 There are contractual boundaries.\u00a0 Journalists must play at the margins and strive to push them out.\u00a0 Those who say \u2018impossible\u2019 probably don\u2019t try hard enough.\u00a0 There is nothing airtight in this world.\u00a0 If anyone entertained illusions that defense systems are perfect, 9\/11 would have been sobering enough to abandon the notion.\u00a0 It is the same principle that allows for an obviously non-destructive equivalence in the media world.\u00a0 Sure, there are dangers.\u00a0 Journalists have got killed. No one said it was going to be delivered on a platter with thank-you note either.<\/p>\n

This is why some feel that there\u2019s safety in numbers.\u00a0 And yet numbers is just element. Organizations and organizing are useful but not always necessary when it comes to saying what needs to be said.\u00a0 If what needs to be said is to be said, one must have courage and skill.\u00a0 One must be intelligent and creative.\u00a0 There should be humility and patience.\u00a0 Above all there has to be professional honesty.\u00a0 Take any one of these out, and no amount of friendly legislation will get us very far.\u00a0 Freedom is not given, it is got. It is obtained less by agitation than by practicing vocation.\u00a0With honor and dignity.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Must Be Said Will Be Said - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/what-must-be-said-will-be-said\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Must Be Said Will Be Said - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/what-must-be-said-will-be-said\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-03T18:35:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-10T18:47:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/what-must-be-said-will-be-said\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/what-must-be-said-will-be-said\/\",\"name\":\"What Must Be Said Will Be Said - 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