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| Sunday, 17 July 2005 |
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Editorial |  |
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Please forward your comments to the
Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 11 2429239 / 2331181 Fax : 94 11 2429230 Sunday Observer and the MFA As our readers would have noticed from an article in our front page today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has taken offence with us for publishing a news story concerning the Sri Lankan High Commission in London. It was first hand information and was based on facts we did not need to verify from any other source. The Acting Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, regrets that we did not verify with the Ministry before publishing it. We just reported what happened to us. How on earth could the Ministry verify what happened to us? Was the Additional Secretary suggesting that we should have "cleared" the matter with the Ministry? Or that we should have obtained its prior "permission" to publish the story? Come, come Mr. Secretary that is not the way the media works. If there was any necessity for us to verify from the Ministry we would have certainly done so. By saying that we should have verified with the Ministry he is trying to insinuate that the Sunday Observer has failed in its duty or lacked professionalism in news reporting. The Sunday Observer is a socially responsible newspaper. It knows that its prime duty is to the people of this country. The fact that it is owned by the government does not mean that it should serve the State as an obedient pupil or that it should hide the shortcomings of politicians and bureaucrats. On repeated occasions we did criticise them but with no malice or personal animosity. Further, the MFA gives an excuse on behalf of the High Commission when it says that "the incident may have occurred when the officers on duty at the time were answering calls on the other general exchange lines". In that case adequate officers were not assigned to answer the emergency lines and one emergency line rang on without being answered. The Sunday Observer regrets that the Ministry instead of inquiring as to why the Sri Lankan High Commission did not answer our phone call finds fault with us for letting the people know that such a lapse has occurred. Of course, it was our right to inform the people. How else could we ensure that there would not be a repetition of such negligence? This is not the first occasion that the Ministry took offence with the Sunday Observer. In January 2005 it took offence with us for having reproduced on January 23 an article carried in the Khaleej Times two weeks earlier on January 10, 2005. The Khaleej Times story said that Dr. Stuart Weinstein, a Duty Officer at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii on that fateful December 26, 2004 had alerted the US Embassy in Colombo about the oncoming tsunami waves and subsequently he received a phone call from the Foreign Ministry in Sri Lanka. Dr. Weinstein had told the Khaleej Times that his message about the tsunami had not meant anything to the person who called from Colombo. The MFA did not contradict this story for nearly two weeks. It came into action only after we published the story on January 25, 2005. Then too it did not try to investigate whether anyone at the Foreign Ministry contacted the Hawaii Centre on that date but instead told us that the Hawaii Centre did not warn about the tsunami. We never maintained that the Hawaii Centre contacted the MFA in Colombo. On the other hand we reproduced what Dr. Weinstein had told the Khaleej Times that someone at the MFA in Colombo contacted him. The MFA then expressed disappointment and concern in strong words. We quote: "Foreign Affairs Ministry can only characterise this gross misrepresentation of facts as unfortunate, since it concerns such a sensitive and grave tragedy affecting the people of this country." We did not reply in the same language and we kept calm as we felt it would be inappropriate at that sensitive time. But today we say that we published that story exactly for the same reason that it concerned such a sensitive and grave tragedy affecting the people of this country. The Sunday Observer accepts the fact that we as humans are fallible. We do however, ascribe infallibility to none, be they politicians, bureaucrats, kings or paupers. Whenever our mistakes are shown to us or whenever we ourselves find out our mistakes we never hesitate to correct them and tender apologies to whomsoever we should apologise. Unlike some Ministers and other politicians we also never fail to articulate our views on important national issues irrespective of whether it would offend those in authority or not. We do not believe that a policy of standing on the fence would serve the people, especially at critical moments in our contemporary history. We do not take pleasure in criticism too. We see it only as a necessary tool in our trade. We have also never failed to praise what is praiseworthy and condemn what deserves condemnation. |
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