User:Jaya Pathmapani/Wijayananda Jayaweera

Wijayananda Jayaweera was born on 19 February 1949 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. At the age of 20 he began his career in 1969 at Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation as a Programme Production Assistant and became a Radio Announcer, a Programme Organizer, Station Manager and the Controller of Regional Broadcasting Services. At the time of leaving the broadcasting career in 1993 he was the Controller of SLBC Staff Training Institute. Jayaweera's contributions to broadcasting development in Sri Lanka is marked with his pioneering work to establish and consolidtae the first ever Regional Broadcasting Service of Sri Lanka “Rajarata Sevaya” in 1979 and followed up by local community radio services established under UNESCO' sponsored Mahaweli Community Radio project. In 1984 he was designated as the Organiser of the Mahaweli Community Radio project, a pioneering Asian Community radio venture at a time when broadcasting was a government monopoly in Asia. Mahaweli Community Radio was established with the support from UNESCO and operated within the provisions of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Act to facilitate the relocation of nearly 60,000 families under one the most ambitious resettlement projects implemented by any Asian Governments In the course of this work Jayaweera argued for total autonomy and community ownership of the community radio stations established under the project and co-authored two publications in 1985 entitled Mahaweli Community Radio workbooks with Ole Aabenhus summarizing the experiences of Mahaweli Community Radio. Jayaweera’s expertise in community broadcasting made him to be a key resource person for many community radio ventures in Asia. Since 1987, Asia Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development recruited him as a training Director for courses on training methodologies and community broadcasting, in Kuala Lumpur, Iran and Papua New Guinea. The canadian development agency IDRC engaged him in Vietnam to train local broadcasters on community programming. In 1989 he worked as a consulatnt for DaniCom in Copenhagen followed by a one year assignment in Bhutan to implement a UNESCO project to develop the Bhutan Broadcasting Services.

In 1991 UNESCO invited him to train the local broadcasters in Cambodia immediately following the UN held first democratic elections. Eventually Jayaweera was recruited by UNESCO in 1994 as a Programme Specialist and the desk officer for Asia dealing with media development. In this capacity he implemented the Tambuli Community Rdaio project under which 20 pioneering independent community radio stations were established in the Philippine, spearheaded the negotiations with the Government of Nepal to establish Radio Sagarmatha in Kathmandu, Nepal the first truly independent community radio established with UNESO support in Asia which became a beacon for the community radio movements in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. Following the fall of the Dictator President Suhartho in Indonesia Jayaweera was assigned in 1999 by UNESCO to lead its mission to reform media laws help develop free, independent and pluralistic media in Indonesia. His work led to the introduction of the Indonesian Press Law under which the Independent Press Council was established to guarantee the press freedom in Indonesia. This law was a trailbaser and considered be one of the best Press Laws which guarantees Press Freedom as a corner stone of Indonesian Democracy and obliged the government officials to provide information at the requests of journalists. Following this intervention the Director-General of UNESCO appointed  Jayaweera as the UNESCO’s Regional Communication Adviser for Asia and concurrently designated him as the UNESCO Representative to Malaysia. Based in Kula Lumpur he was instrumental in developing Cambodian Communication Institute as an affiliated journalism education institution of Royal Phnom Penh University, expansion of community radio movement in Asia, including in Thailand and Mongolia. In 2001 he was assigned to UNESCO Office in India and continued to function as the Regional Communication Adviser. During this period he helped the Indian Government to develop the community radio policy, introduction of parliamentary broadcasting and established the first independent university radio station in Lahore, Pakistan laeding the way to open up broadcasting sector to other important players.

In 2003 UNESCO Director General appointed him as the Director of Communication Development Division and the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), based in UNESCO head quarters in Paris. He was assigned to IPDC in particular at the request of then IPDC Chairman late Mr. Torben Krogh who was looking for some one to lead the reforms of the Programme following an independent evaluation of IPDC carried out by the Norwegian Government. Jayaweera led the reform process successfully reinvigorating IPDC with renewed donor confidence as the main multilateral instrument to support development of free independent and pluralistic media in the developing countries. During his tenure he led the introduction of IPDC endorsed Media Development Indicators, which is used by the UN system and other stakeholders as the only set of internationally agreed indicators to determine media development needs and to measure the developments. He was also instrumental in bringing safety of journalists and the issue of impunity to the Intergovernmental Council of the IPDC and making the Council as a global oversight body on issue of safety of journalists by obliging UNESCO member States to report on the judicial follow up of killing of journalists occurred within their territories. It was under his directorship, UNESCO set the international standards for journalism education with UNESCO’s model curricula on journalism education and criteria for instructional excellence applicable to media training institutions. Among his other initiatives were the introduction of Media Literacy as a major pillar of UNESCO Media Development Programmes. Jayaweera has travel widely to laed UNESCO advisory missions in various countries and has authored and presented numerous papers related to development of free, independent and pluralistic media during major international conferences.

Jayaweera received the Sri Lanka’s state literature award for his translation of Astrid Lingren’s "Brothers Lionheart" into Sinhala. He also translated and published Dr. Tim Flannery’s famous book on climate change ‘ We are the Weather Makers” into Sinhala. Jayaweera has a diploma in Journalism from the University of Colombo and a Master Degree with merits, on Mass Communication from the University of Leister, UK.