Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Unions publishes Handbook for Journalists

by Saman Indrajith

Writing a handbook for a profession of public and social occupation is not easy and this is true for the profession of journalism which is considered an occupation that both supports and sustains the credibility of the decision-making system and drives its functions.

Compiling a handbook for media professionals is hard because it can never be a completed task owing to many practical reasons including the difficulty of providing a clear-cut, all-agreed definition of what journalism is. It has been defined as a job, an art and a profession among many others. 

Yet there are a number of handbooks for journalists and some of them have come to attention having been prescribed for the courses of study by various journalism schools both local and foreign. The most recent handbook for journalists was released last week by the Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Union (FMETU), an affiliate of the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) and the local member of the International Federation of Journalists.

The FMETU titled ‘Handbook for Professional Journalists’ is a trilingual booklet of 68 pages which have been divided into 11 chapters covering various issues under topics such as a brief history of the Sri Lankan media industry, media institutions here (print/broadcast/electronic), main media organizational structures, the media industry of Sri Lanka, concept of ‘Public Service Media,’ and suggested solutions for problems faced by journalists in Sri Lanka today. Answers to questions like ‘What is the legal protection you receive by enrolling with trade unions?’, Wages Boards, a strong organizational structure for journalists, plan for the way forward and a conclusion urging the unity of journalists and media workers to win their rights.

The publication has been edited by Dharmasiri Lankapeli, General Secretary of the FMETU, who states that “the purpose of publishing this booklet, is to provide relevant information for regional journalists of both sexes who form the backbone of the media industry of Sri Lanka to organize themselves as journalists’ trade unions in each of the 25 districts of the country. The information presented in this guide will also be useful for mainstream journalists to network and organize themselves under a collective professional grouping. This booklet is designed to make you aware of your rights as a journalist committed to safeguarding the rights of the people and to prepare and motivate you to play a catalytic role in the media industry, ready for a new era of ‘Public Service Journalism’, which goes beyond the traditional model of trade unions.”

Editorial assistance for the publication has been provided by Keshara Kottegoda Vithana of the Ceylon Bank Employees Union (CBEU), Arul Joseph of the Ceylon Mercantile Industrial and General Workers’ Union (CMU) and Suranjaya Amarasinghe of the United Federation of Labour (UFL). Page layout and cover design has been done by Dhammika Senaratne. The booklet has been publicized with the assistance of International Research & Exchange Board (IREX) through the Media Empowerment for Democratic Sri Lanka project.

As it has been mentioned at the outset it is not easy to compile a comprehensive and complete handbook for the profession of journalism. The booklet is not a complete work and that is also an opinion. However this attemp by the FMETU should be appreciated for its booklet contains a lot of information that cannot be found elsewhere. First, it has the provincial journalists in its focus giving them equal importance to mainstream journalists. Second, the booklet allots more than a single chapter to highlight importance of a rather new genre ‘Public Service Journalism’. The content provided n the subject in the booklet could be termed an introduction to that genre.  Third, there are brief introductions about the rights of journalists and legal protections available to them.

If the authors had dealt more on those issues allocating them space in their publication, it would have been more useful to the readers as well as newcomers to the profession of journalism including many students in journalism schools in the country.  There is some content such as history and facts that could be helpful for Advanced Level students reading media studies as one of their subjects for the GCE ‘A’ examination. In addition the booklet is all about trade unionism, self-promoting FMETU and issues of organizing journalists district-wise to form a single powerful national body. 

That grand ambition has been presented in the form of a structured model for the easy understanding of the reader but in the opinion of this reviewer that plan is not practical in present circumstances. The suggested plan for organizing journalists of all language streams into a single body is a utopian vision.  However Lankapeli and his comrades who compiled the booklet should be appreciated for their initiative because it is far better to light a candle than curse the darkness.