An inconvenient history: A reply to Victory Ivan’s viewpoints on criminal defamation

27 Jul, 2007 Colombo, Media and Communications
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වික්ටර් අයිවන්ට පිළිතුරක් : තවත් බොහෝ දේ තිබේ
උවිඳු කුරුකුලසූරිය

“සාපරාධී අපහාස නීතියට එරෙහිව මෙන්ම ජනමාධ්‍ය නිදහස වෙනුවෙන්ද වික්ටර් අයිවන් විශාල වැඩ කොටසක් කර ඇති බව අවිවාදිතය. එහෙත් ඒ සියල්ල තමන් තනිවම කළ ඒවා ලෙස සැලකීම හොඳ නැත. අනෙක් අතට පසුගිය වසර වන තෙක් වික්ටර් අයිවන් නිදහස් මාධ්‍ය ව්‍යාපාරයේ ලේකම්, කැඳවුම්කරු, උපලේකම් ආදී විවිධ තනතුරු දරා ඇත. එමෙන්ම
කර්තෘ සංසදයේද සාමාජිකයෙකු ලෙස කටයුතු කර ඇත. ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා පුවත්පත් ආයතනයේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂවරයෙකු ලෙස කටයුතු කර ඇත. මාධ්‍ය සංවිධාන යමක් නොකළා යැයි කියමන සත්‍යයක් නම් එයට ඔහුද වගකිව යුතුය.”

My article is a response to Victor Ivan’s recent spate of letters in Ravaya on criminal defamation in Sri Lanka. I suggest to the reader that Mr. Ivan’s submission that he was the sole voice of dissent and protest against criminal defamation charges against media personnel to be untrue. From memory, I list out the many ways in which indvidual journalists, including myself, the Free Media Movement, other journalist organisations and civil society organisations rallied against the use of criminal defamation laws to gag the media. I go on to point out several regrettable lapses of memory and judgement that result in Mr. Ivan claiming ownership over and taking the credit things he in fact cannot.

While acknowledging that Mr. Ivan, perhaps more than any other Editor alive today, has suffered the brunt of criminal defamation mechanisms used against him, I point out that his egregiously partial reading and reportage of events and issues contravenes the professional standards and ethics that Ravaya itself drew up to govern its journalism.

Please read my article in full here.

Also see:
Attempts to reintroduce criminal defamation law
Building a campaign against criminal defamation in your country

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2 Comments

  1. Voice in Colombo
    07/27/2007 • 3:49 pm

    I have read Victor’s article, and listen to his views about criminal defamation law, on radio and TV. I personally believe he (Victor Ivan) got a more realistic and impartial point of view regarding the matter, compared to the POV’s of most restless journalists we have in Sri Lanka these days. Victor clearly stand agains the criminal defamation law, and he doesn’t want it back. And I don’t think he said anywhere that, he was the “sole owner” of the credit of getting rid of criminal defamation law. At the same time he accept that the journalists them selves have a large part of responsibility for the government’s latest decision of re-considering this law. According to him, ever since this law was dumped, the professionalism and social responsibility of our journalists are deteriorating. He urged, the journalists not to misuse the victories achieved by journalists in press freedom, as a collective effort. As I can see, Victor Ivan is a more seasoned journalist, who believe in a press freedom with limit. The limit is the line between truth and misinformation. I think many other “gray haired” journalists should use their experiences, and try to understand the reality.

    Reply

  2. uvindu
    07/30/2007 • 2:51 pm

    “voice in colombo” claimed that he had read Victor’s articles, and said victor never claimed “sole owner” of the credit of getting rid of criminal defamation law. if you read Victor’s articles on 15th and 22nd of july Ravaya you can see Victor’s claim

    Reply

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