The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL) received 133 complaints last year.
Of the 133 complaints, 84 complaints were valid complaints falling within the purview of the PCCSL mechanism with the Editors publishing a ‘Right of Readers’ for 29 of them, Chief Executive Officer of the PCCSL said in his annual report for 2016.
The report was read out at the Annual General Meeting of the Commission held last Tuesday at the Sri Lanka Press Institute auditorium in Colombo.
CEO Sukumar Rockwood said the Sinhala press attracted a majority of the complaints. He said that the Commission received the fullest co-operation from editors to resolve these complaints amicably and swiftly. He said 317 complaints were resolved directly by editors providing a ‘Right of Readers’ to the aggrieved parties.
The report stated that the PCCSL, which is a voluntary self-regulatory body has the support of the Newspaper Society, Editors’ Guild, Free Media Movement, Working Journalists Association and four other media organizations including a trade union. They are the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union, Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and the South Asian Free Media Association-Sri Lanka Chapter.
The PCCSL has conducted 27 meetings with publishers, Editors, Desk Heads, sub editors and journalists (reporters). The PCCSL also visited Polonnaruwa, Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Kurunegala, Colombo, Hambantota, Amparai, Jaffna, Gampaha, Galle and Kandy and conducted programmes for provincial correspondents.