The Island Editorial

Shooting rapids upstream

17 November 2016

Come to think of it, we have been in print for three and a half decades, which represent perhaps the most eventful phase of the country’s post-Independence history. This arduous journey would not have been possible without our faithful readers who have been solidly behind us through thick and thin. The Island is theirs and we raise our editorial hat to them.

We do not make our 35th anniversary an excuse to preen ourselves on what we consider our achievements. Our readers are the best judges. We are only happy that we have taken on repressive regimes, ruthless terrorists, dangerous criminals and wily crooks in the line of duty.

The J. R. Jayewardene government went all out to throttle Upali Newspapers financially; the Old Fox once personally summoned a group of top bankers to his Ward Place residence and threatened them to stop doing business with us, but in vain. His successor was far worse. It looked as if the raison d’etre of the Premadasa government was to attack The Island and its sister paper, Divaina. Its top guns did not consider their day complete unless they vented their spleens on us. That kept us going!

The Kumaratunga government was no better; it remained as hostile as its predecessor towards us until its end. Under the Rajapaksa government, too, this newspaper was banned in some government institutions and its editor received threats for being critical of its grandees who thought no end of themselves. The present dispensation also indulges in bashing us for refusing to toe its line and exposing its corrupt deals and abuse of power as evident from the streams of invectives its leaders let out against us.

There is only a thin line between journalism and activism. And, it is often crossed. A mainstream newspaper playing an activist role is like a commercial airliner undertaking a combat mission. In so doing, it faces not only many limitations but also risks and dangers. But, there come times when a publication worth its salt cannot avoid activism. The history of The Island is replete with such instances.

It is being argued in some quarters that newspapers are fast becoming dinosaurs of the information industry where multi-platform journalism has become the order of the day; even web publications have come to be considered traditional! It is against the backdrop of these formidable challenges that the rapid development of the information industry throws up, besides a highly competitive environment where dogs no longer hesitate to eat each other, that The Island’s 35-year-long journey should be viewed.

The aforesaid ‘doomsday prophecy’ has thankfully gone the same way as pollsters’ predictions as regards Brexit and the recently concluded US presidential polls. Driven by its anything-goes mindset, the alternative media employing different platforms are doing the mainstream media a big favour; not bound by any code of ethics and encouraged by the laxity of laws and morals they have adopted an unorthodox, if not, heterodox, daredevil approach and irrevocably compromised their credibility.

The media have come to such a pass today that we have television journalists stooping so low as to use their programmes to advertise various products themselves; some of them even appear in advertisements. The print media, too, is struggling to prevent itself from being swept away by the rising tide of commercialism.

Many publications, the world over, have already slipped their professional and ethical moorings and drifted into the sea of commercialism with packaging having taken precedence over content. A mainstream publication which compromises gravitas, in our book, is not worthy of the name.

The biggest challenge before us is to continue to shoot the rapids upstream in keeping with the principles we have cherished for three and a half decades.