The private media on the other hand believe that from morning till night the UPFA government is plotting to close media offices. And at the rate the government has been cracking down on media institutions one cannot blame journalists for coming to this conclusion. If this standoff between the ruling coalition and the media continue for another few weeks it would definitely spell disaster for both camps. Already the headlines on media harassment have gone to undermine the poll victory to a certain extent. Internationally it is making more headlines than the president’s landslide victory at the January 26th polls. Certainly this is not something that President Rajapaksa would like in the aftermath of the elections. No man is an island and however much one tries to maintain a degree of insularity, the information technology would not leave a national leader alone. Antagonizing media has its own perils. The fear psychosis that is being created among media persons due to the gross intolerance towards dissent has disappointed all and proven the predictions of those who continued to maintain a landslide is always bad for a country’s democracy. There’s no denying of the fact that handful of private media entities especially a few websites went too far away from the orbit and brought disgrace to the entire media fraternity by planting some bizarre stories. A handful of alternative newspapers too went to violate even basic ethics. However none of these should serve as an excuse for the government to adopt a general policy of intolerance towards media. Each case should be taken separately and attempts to lump all private media institutions as being essentially anti-establishment would only go further to widen the gulf between the State and media. Any attempts to let officials, who do not understand the role of media in society, to dictate terms, will also spell doom. Mutual mistrust between government and media has throughout been a feature of independent Sri Lanka and the worst phases had always been under the most powerful regimes. More often than not these difficult times had pushed even moderate media persons to take a strong stand. So whatever temporary gains that a cracking down on media would bring to a regime it will only go to spell disaster in the long run. The onslaught on media during the last few days had killed whatever optimism that was there that the government would adopt a better approach towards the fourth estate at least after the polls. It is up to President Rajapaksa, who once used to maintain healthy ties with media, to dispel whatever qualms that are there about his second term.
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