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By Ranga Jayasuriya

One cynical quote in journalism is that the freedom of press is confined to those who own a press. Cynical though it may sound, it seems to have an element of truth, if one is to look into the conduct of the media, especially electronic media of both private and state owned, during the run up to the election.

All kinds of tactics were at work to manipulate the public opinion. Opinion polls, which are generally supposed to be a work of independent research, were not spared.

It was crystal clear, even during the run up to the Presidential poll, that the results of SMS polls which were carried out by these media institutions were only a reflection of their political loyalties either to Ranil Wickremesinghe or Mahinda Rajapakse.

Of course, there is no scientific basis on an opinion poll where one could vote at indefinite occasions, provided that he could afford Rs. 10 for every SMS vote.

Let alone scientific aspects, basic ethics of the conduct of media is perhaps the main victim.

The Rajapakse camp kept on complaining that messages sent in favour of Rajapakse was not added to his account at the Sirasa opinion poll, while the Wickremesinghe camp complained they were facing the same dilemma at the ITN organised SMS poll.

It is therefore no surprise that the outcome of the election was totally different from what was predicted by both SMS polls.

Of course, Rajapakse won as predicted by the ITN poll, but not clinching 70 percent of popular votes against Ranil Wickremesinghe's 30 per cent as predicted by ITN. Indeed, Rajapakse won a close fought election, with his majority being 186,000 votes.

And Sirasa TV and Radio which suggested over 70 percent for Ranil Wickremesinghe against mere 25 percent of Rajapakse was proved dead wrong. The failure of both opinion polls are not a cause for surprise, as it later turned out, they were another means of expressing the loyalty of these media institutions to either of main contenders to the Presidency.

This points to the sad but stubborn fact that most media institutions - if not all- in this country have become subservient to the political loyalties of their ownership, who use them to enhance their commercial and political interests.

Pointing to the mushrooming media outlets, sometime ago one gentleman suggested to me, that media in this country had become a place for money laundering.

He sounds true, if you look at the profiles of most of these new media moguls.

Of course, changes would not happen over night.

Only a decade has passed since the media liberalisation in this country which means electronic media here is relatively young compared to their counterparts in the West. India with a vibrant media culture is an exception.

However, changes would not happen automatically. Journalists in particular and civil society in general need to campaign for a clear demarcation between the powers of media ownership and those of editors and news directors, if media remains to be true to its traditional role, the role of the fourth state.

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