The Speaker at the next parliamentary sitting will make an announcement to the House on the privilege issue raised by UNP National List MP Dr.Jayampathy Wickramaratne who told the Parliament on Thursday (January 24) that his privacy has been infringed upon by reporting a private conversation on a popular TV channel after a press briefing on January 22.
Above all, it is for the Speaker to decide whether it is a violation of parliamentary privileges of the MP or not. If the Speaker decides it is a violation of privileges, the matter should be referred to the Committee on Privileges, Deputy Secretary-General and Chief of Staff of Parliament Neil Iddawala who is also the Secretary to the Committee told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
Raising a privilege issue in Parliament on Thursday (January 24), UNP National List MP Dr. Wickramaratne said his party convened a media briefing on January 22 to announce the future program of the United Socialist Front which had hardly anything to do with the Constitution-making process.
“However, the TV channel failed to telecast anything that we discussed at the press conference. A personal conversation between us subsequent to the media briefing had been recorded and telecast by the TV channel with visuals and the audio with subtitles for greater clarity.
The telecast said that Lal Wijenayake, several others and I had held a media briefing and thereafter we continued our discussions and played the audio of our private conversation.
The MP further said they didn’t meet to discuss anything about the proposed Constitution but as customarily their party members were planning a meet-up and have a meal together.
Dr.Wickramaratne said that was entirely a personal matter but our private conversation had been distorted and reported by the TV channel which is an invasion to our privacy.
That particular media had referred to us as those involved in the Constitution making process which the people have witnessed themselves while our entertainment had nothing to do with the Constitutional process at all. He further said there is nobody to complain about such private television channels. If a newspaper had published any distorted news item, at least there is the Press Complaints Commission to complain about it, but there is no similar body for the regulation of television stations.