There’s a new ethics code for Sri Lankan photographers and photojournalists.
According to a news announcement on the Sri Lankan government’s website, the code was created by the Sri Lanka National Photographic Arts Society and came into effect July 2.
The National Photographic Art Society of Sri Lanka’s Wijaya Basnayak told iMediaEthics this is the first ethics code for Sri Lankan photographers. While there isn’t an English-language version of the code yet, when there is, iMediaEthics will update with that.
“The Code was prepared in our native language ‘Sinhala’, and the translations in English and Tamil, the other official languages of our country, will be issued soon,” Basnayak told iMediaEthics.
According to Basnayak, “There was no such code for photographers before this one, and this is the first attempt.”
“Further we hope to revise the code according to the changing situations and also to cope up with the similar documents published in other countries,” he went on.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Director General of Government Information Dr. Ranga Kalansooriya said the Ministry of Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media wants to create an independent commission focused on standards and ethics for journalism, Sri Lankan news site Colombo Page reported.
iMediaEthics contacted Kalansooriya for more information. He told us there is “no formal channel yet.” We asked Kalansooriya to keep us informed of any developments.