Sri Lanka does not have that many quintessential bilingual journalists. Jayatilleke de Silva who left us three years ago during this eve was one among the few. When the powers that be placed him on the seat of Ceylon Daily News Editor-in-Chief, they chose a man of vast experience in education, politics, academia, literature and wider society. That added a fresh wavelength into the journalistic world. This unique versatility enabled de Silva to embellish his role as the Editor of both the Daily News and the Sunday Observer. He was widely read, always well-informed and in touch with reality.
Although his primary focus was politics, which he reflected through his editorials, columns and features, he had an ear to the ground with regard to all contemporary issues. As the editor, he advised his journalists to give priority to human interest stories, instead of always hunting for politically-oriented stories.
He was quite familiar with the power of words. Be it Sinhala or English, he did excel in combining words in a superlative manner. Thus, his columns in both languages were eagerly awaited by the readers and sometimes loathed by politicians and other big shots, as he reserved his sharpest words for them. Fear was not a word that could describe him at all.
Small-made in physique, yet he carried a statuesque personality. Regardless of whoever remained above him in the management, de Silva called the shots. He stood his ground by all means. Yet no one in the then top management dared to complain that he was arrogant, snobbish and difficult to work with. Such grumbling cast aside, they maintained immense respect for him as a veteran senior journalist. De Silva, on the other hand, gave a charismatic stature to the position of Ceylon Daily News Editor-in-Chief.
He fought for what he believed was right – once when a superior found fault with him for running a copy that angered a big advertiser, he stood his ground and stood by his reporter. In the end, he had the courage to resign.
Journalism was in his very veins. Even a few hours before his death, he asked a nurse to bring him the day’s newspapers to keep up to date with the day’s events. In fact, he continued to write columns to newspapers until a few weeks before his departure.
Although he was not in the Editor’s seat of the Daily News when it celebrated its centenary in 2018, it was a very happy moment for him. He shrugged away his illness and joined the celebrations and made it a point to talk to everyone at the Daily News where he once mentored them. He invited me to his home to discuss about the 100th anniversary of the Daily News and journalism in general. The following were gleaned from some of his observations.
That Ceylon Daily News enjoys a prominent standing as an established, respected and much-revered flagship newspaper in the industry is a fact. The newspaper provides the official standpoint of the incumbent Government without distorting the state of affairs. Jayatilleke de Silva deemed it a privilege to be Editor-in-Chief of a newspaper of that calibre on three occasions.
“I enjoyed all the three periods as the paper’s Editor-in-Chief. That is simply because of the team I had to work with. They carried on well with me.”
De Silva, however, was quick to point out the limitations naturally imposed on the paper because of its government stakeholders. The political interference reached a hegemonic state at times, based on the personality of whoever calls the shots.
“Defending diverse opinions was not much welcome at times. That made it difficult to relay proper information to the reader.” The political interference to a greater extent served as a hurdle in maintaining the readership trust. What was the solution to that?
“I wanted to make the paper a wide-ranging platform. So I introduced various light-reading materials to kindle the readership.”
Jayatilleke de Silva occupied the Editor’s chair in 2000, 2003 and 2009. He fought tooth and nail to uphold journalistic integrity while his contemporaries sought the rosy path of being ‘too friendly’ with the political masters. While others chose to toe the line, he dared not to. And the result: he was the cornered one among ‘chosen editors’.
“As a government newspaper, we are supposed to present the government opinion. There is no question about that. But I was not ready to go over the top.”
A Parliamentarian once made use of Parliamentary time to criticise another person on certain wrongdoing. The news appeared on page one of Lake House newspapers, except for the Daily News. On the Daily News, it was in the Lobby column. The following day, de Silva was summoned to offer an explanation as to why he failed to give it page one publicity. It was not page one material, de Silva had explained.
During another different political period, a media advisor to a VVIP wanted his write-up to appear as an editorial in the Daily News. “If I am the editor, it’s my responsibility to decide which story should go in which section. That said, I have the final say in the editorial as well. So I published the media advisor’s story elsewhere bylined as ‘a special correspondent’.”
That seemingly brash conduct developed into an unsavoury relationship between de Silva and the political bosses of the day. They grew furious when he was not ready to play to their whims and fancies.
“The thing with the political apparatus is that they see everything in black and white. They fail to notice the grey areas. They do not want us to produce the truth all the time.”
Jayatilleke de Silva had to pull out all the stops to keep the paper from losing its esteem. But the job before him was not that easy. Restricted terminology was an added hurdle to the editor’s sovereignty.
The editorship posed him quite a challenge, yet Jayatilleke de Silva braved the odds all the time upholding the integrity of the Fourth Estate.
Born in Ambalangoda in 1938, de Silva was a graduate of the Colombo University. His first profession was teaching. After a brief stint as the Principal of Deniyaya Central College, he left the teaching to pursue a full-time career in politics from the Sri Lanka Communist Party, of which he was an active member for a few decades.
De Silva’s first foray into journalism was from the Aththa newspaper of the Communist Party. He soon earned a reputation as an author and translator of several seminal works on socialism and other trends in politics.
His most well-known work is the massive three-volume Sinhala translation of Karl Marx’s definitive treatise on the socialist model “Das Kapital”. The entire print run of the three volumes was sold out. After retiring from politics, he re-entered journalism, joining the Daily News in the late 1990s and becoming its Editor-in-Chief in 2001. He was appointed Editor of the Daily News again from 2003–2004 and also held the post of Chief Editor, Sunday Observer for a few years. He was well known for his sharp editorials and journalistic acumen.
After leaving Lake House, he continued to write political columns to both English and Sinhala newspapers. A fearless writer and a critical analyst of contemporary politics, his Cross Currents column in the Daily News was eagerly awaited by readers.
He also spoke regularly at political forums and discussions on current issues. There are plans to issue some of his yet unpublished works.
– Sachitra Mahendra