'Media friendly' Kumaratunga tries to gag a bound Sri Lankan press

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga is awfully cross. With the media at large, and certain Lankan newspapers in particular.

The reason? Well, they have been trying to run her down these past three years, she says, with 'personalised attacks' -- and she has had enough.

So last week Kumaratunga decided to show the press some action. She led her People's Alliance to introduce a new Broadcasting Bill in Parliament which sought to, not only gag the press, but to bind it too.

The new Bill proposes to constitute a broadcasting authority which would licence all radio and television stations. The authority would be constituted with civil servants from various ministries, including the defence. The radio and civil stations would have to renew their licences from this authority every year.

The Sri Lankan press, naturally, is upset. Kumaratunga, they say, has a strange way of interpreting the phrase 'freedom of press.' In fact, she had been interpreting it all wrong right from day one -- and scribes point to the numerous raids on newspaper, radio and television offices and the many criminal cases against journalists as proof.

Kumaratunga, it would appear, has frequently used criminal defamation laws and emergency regulations to keep journalists in check. Military rules, too, have come in handy time and again, and the president had all throughout kept a close, personal eye on reports about the rebel uprising.

In January, police arrested a journalist under anti-terrorism laws for erroneously reporting that Tamil rebels had overrun a police commando camp. The president then sued the editors of two leading independent weekly newspapers -- The Sunday Times (Sinha Ratnatunge) and The Sunday Leader (Lasanatha Wickrematunga) for writing she lead a lavish lifestyle.

And now, to cap it all off, comes this Bill.

"It will give political authorities unrestricted control over the media,'' laments the Free Media Movement. The Sunday Times was more outcoming with its description. "Draconian," it thundered.

"Such a repressive piece of legislation violates the true spirit of a free media,'' Democratic United National Front member Ravi Karuanayake said.

The Opposition has challenged the Bill in the Supreme Court and is waiting for its ruling. Under the Constitution, the court can order that crucial legislation be approved by at least a two-thirds majority, instead of the usual simple majority.

Kumaratunga, for her part, claims the proposed broadcasting authority was being constituted to end the media minister's monopoly in granting licences. She has also conveyed her willingness to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Sarath Silva.

The governing coalition had made vociferous 'more-freedom-to-the-press' promises on the campaign platform three years ago; but nothing had come out of it. For instance, Lankan scribes point out, the alliance was to amend the Parliament Power and Privileges Act which allows parliament to try cases against journalists. So what has happened to it?

Nothing, that is what -- Lankan Parliamentarians still serve as judges and try media cases.