I can if he has attacked the GoSL reasoning he himself is now using. This too was pointed out to him, and that point too was deleted.

“There is a very clear difference between a government censoring free speech, and a newspaper censoring itself.”

In the context of SL, where self-censorship is practiced either for self-preservation, or because of particular agendum, there my be a technical difference, but no more than that — one’s as bad as the other.

“That’s what Sanjana did.”

Rubbish. Firstly, it is a subjective opinion whether it is “shit” or not; and frankly in comparison to the shit written regularly in newspapers (and on Groundviews) this is nothing but a minor fart. Secondly, it is a cartoon, not some libelous article, and should be treated as such, with the appropriate sense of irony and humour. Thirdly, Sanjana has called for the cartoonist to be sacked (not ignored, as you claim), and then attacked those who criticized him with the same levels of sexism, vulgarity, and tastelessness (suggesting one commentator go look up the saris of his mother, wife, and teenage daughter) that he was accusing Lakbima of. The fact that he subsequently deleted his comment (it’s still there via Google cache) indicates that he recognizes, in hindsight, his obvious lack of maturity — though he refuses to acknowledge or apologize for it. He has also now blocked several of the commentators (including myself) who pointed out the immaturity he displayed, more or less confirming our opinions of him :D

“There’s a huge difference between GoSL censoring something on the grounds of taste, and Sanjana calling for the newspaper to censor itself on the grounds of taste.”

The GoSL has regularly pointed out that the media should in fact censor itself, and has been criticized for that call by people like Sanjana. The debate isn’t about self-censorship, but rather who decides what is tasteful or not. No one has the right to make that call based on their own agendum, nor to suggest that those who don’t abide be sacked.

So yes, it is that simple.

But you cannot attack Sanjana for simply saying something we’ve heard from the GoSL as well. The world’s stupidest person may say that the sun exists. That doesn’t make the sun black out. The GoSL also believes that 2 + 2 = 4. That doesn’t mean 2 + 2 != 4.

There is a very clear difference between a government censoring free speech, and a newspaper censoring itself. I don’t think I have to explain that difference to you. As an educated person, you must know that political philosophers have written billions of words on the role of government and nature of free speech.

There are two ways to counter unethical journalism. One is legislation. If Jayalalitha was not a public figure, but a child, or just some innocent stay-at-home wife, whom some cartoonist decided to attack with a vulgar cartoon simply because she’s someone’s wife, even I would support laws against that sort of things. Most countries do recognize a difference between public figures and ordinary citizens. But we cannot have laws for everything. The fewer the laws the better. So the other way to counter unethical journalism is public outrage. If some newspaper start publishing shit, you simply stop buying the it, and stop buying the stuff of their sponsors, and attack the newspaper in online forums like groundviews. That’s what Sanjana did.

It’s that simple. There’s a huge difference between GoSL censoring something on the grounds of taste, and Sanjana calling for the newspaper to censor itself on the grounds of taste.

My stand on this was pretty clearly stated. I think the cartoon was vulgar, and artless, but think it’s mostly harmless, and certainly don’t want the cartoonist sacked.

1) Cartoons do not have to be funny, as such (though obviously it helps, &c.).

2) The suggestion that a cartoonist be fired for being unamusing – in particular, or in general – is a) too obviously subjective to warrant discussion; b) kind of the point, especially if you’re on the receiving end of the cartoon; and c) itself all-too-often fallen back on by those who pride themselves on being liberal minded and anti-censorship but then discover they have a problem with a particular example.

That said, this issue is only going to make a few waves in the pro-LTTE community. Most Sri Lankans won’t be bothered about it, the ‘international community’ won’t understand any of it, and it won’t make any difference to anything in reality. The cartoonist should be warned, but not fired. There have been much worse things.