The Press in Sri Lanka:

Decisive influence on the worsening of the ethnic relations

by Prof. K. Sivathamby

Those who are capable of fluent reading in both Sinhala and Tamil would be struck by the manner in which matters of ethnic interest, for instance those deal with incidents by militant and the military are presented to the respective readers.

Not only the language but the manner the incidents are depicted raises fundamental questions relating to the very concept and the practices of 'reportage'.

One sided reports

While it is true that any 'news' is also in a way, a comment, the reports are blatantly one sided! Worse still is the fact. The events chosen for reporting are very selective.

It is little realized that the vast majority of the people depend on the print medium to 'know' what is happening and that they get the information from the press and form their opinions on the basis of those information. The print medium is the most trusted of all the media in Sri Lanka. News by radio and TV are generally taken as informative and discussions are generally considered participatory. To this day the print medium plays pivotal role in the creation of public opinion.

The history of the press in Sri Lanka, especially that of the Sinhala press is intertwined with the rise of nationalism, which was largely detriment by indigenous responses to Christianization and Westernization. (In fact, for some both were indistinguishable)

It is a feature of the Sri Lankan nationalism that the first expressions of it were through religion and language culture. Arumuganavalar was for Saivaism in Tamil. Sidee Lebbe was for Islam and Arabic. And Anagarika Dharmapala for Sinhala and Buddhism. The first indgeneous non Christian publications were invariably influenced by this fact.

It is generally accepted that the press had a decisive influence on the worsening of the ethnic relations. And when the politics of the country turned 'communal', understandably the print medium began to play the important role.

First major attempt at all Island level to make newspaper publications as a great business undertaking was achieved through the efforts of D.R. Wijayawardane, of Lake House. He published newspapers in three languages: Sinhala, Tamil, English. There was the possibility of uniformity in the presentation of news. But those who are familiar with the history of the Lake House are also aware of the historical fact that even under the grat Esmond Wickramasinghe, such uniformity was not possible. It was also realized that one of the basic causes for the variation was the expectation of the reading public.

Even in the best of times, The Daily News and The Sunday Observer could not equal the Dinamina / Silumina in terms of the readership and the sales. The same is said of the Times groups. Lankadeepa soon emerged as their better selling newspaper. As for Tamil, there is an interesting difference. The Virakesari (1930) and the Thinakaran (1932). The Thinakaran belongs to the Lake House group. Virakesari was financed by the by an Indian businessman. And as long as the importance of the Indian freedom movement continued, Virakesari was able to keep up the position as newspaper satisfying the Tamil readership.

However there was a regional newspaper in Jaffna satisfying the Tamil readership. A weekly by name of Ealakesari, which played an important role in the formulation of Sri Lankan Tamil literature and culture in the 1930s and 1940s.

development of the national bourgeoisie

Its is significant that in the mid 1950s Esmond Wickramasinghe very consciously encouraged the development of the national bourgeoisie and during that time, especially in the 1950s, Thinakaran began to outdo Virakesari. The credit should go to primarily to Kailsapathy and also to M.S. Ratnam, the advertising manager for Thinakaran.

The take over of the press by the government dealt a severe blow to this trend. The Sinhalaness of the SLFP let to a conscious concern for the Tamil Language among the Tamils. It is important to record the fact, that in 1961 the great Colombo Tamil Businessman K.C. Thangarajah started the fires of the regional Tamil dailies for Sri Lanka, in Jaffna. The name of the paper was 'Eelanadu' and to this day it is a very important newspaper.

Muslims' preference

As far as Muslims are concerned, it has been the 'Thinakaran' from the Lake House which catered their needs than the Chettiyar run Virakesari; even after that proprietorship changed to Sri Lankan hands.

Thinakaran continued its position as a favourite newspaper among the Muslims. It may be of interest to non-Tamil readers to note that besides Eelanadu, there are three regional dailies in Jaffna and one in Batticaloa. Managing proprietors of one of the most influential dailies of Jaffna, 'Uthayan' has started a Tamil Daily in Colombo. It is quite understandable that in the context of highly strained Sinhala - Tamil relationship, the influence of Sinhala Tamil dailies exhibit an ethic stance.

We should not miss the tragedy of the failure of the Alternative Press 'Yukthiya', which championed the cause of inter ethnic amity, and 'Ravaya' once a popular alternate weekly, that is not doing well now. The fate of 'Yukthiya' and the present condition of Ravaya are indicative of the fall in the political will of the people at large to go for alternate press.

Amidst the sharpening of this 'ethno' political conscientization the Tamil dailies argue that it is their duty to tell their readers what is really happening.

My point is that the political gloom is worsened by newspapers. One final word about the English dailies.

Internally their political usefulness is not very high. The English reading public though articulate politically do not have a decisive place in the politics of the country.

[Sri Lanka Press Institute]