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by Asif Hussain

The Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) which worked together with the Editors' Guild and Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka to reform Sri Lanka's media laws and press for self-regulation of the media is delighted with Sri Lanka's progress, CPU Executive Lindsay Ross told the Sunday Observer.

Ross said that she was especially pleased that Sri Lanka had abolished criminal defamation and it was the second country in the Commonwealth to do so, the first being Ghana. She said that even the United Kingdom had still not repealed its criminal defamation law, though it had been superseded by the Human Rights Act.

Nevertheless, it still remained on the statute books, she said. Ross said that she was particularly impressed by the Freedom of Information Act and was hopeful that the Sri Lanka Press Complaints Commission would begin functioning shortly.

The CPU was instrumental in facilitating a visit by the UK Press Complaints Commission led by Prof. Robert Pinker to press forward the case for self-regulation of the media before journalists and the government, culminating in moves towards self-regulation on the part of local media and the establishment of a Press Complaints Commission in Sri Lanka.

CPU biennial parley

The Commonwealth Press Union's biennial conference will be held in Colombo from February 25-28 at the Trans Asia Hotel. The conference held every two years is organised by the Commonwealth Press Union and co-hosted by the Editors' Guild and Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka. It will be preceded by a 2 1/2 day (23rd-25th) Editors' Forum in Kandy which would focus on issues of editorial concern in the Commonwealth with about sixty to seventy editors from the Commonwealth states excluding those from Sri Lanka participating in it.

The official opening of the conference will take place at the BMICH on the 25th night and the venue will thereafter shift to the Trans Asia Hotel where the conference proper will take place.

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