Sri Lanka puts reporters’ lives at risk-media body

 
GENEVA, June 6 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan government statements accusing critical journalists of treachery in the civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels could encourage “extreme violence” against them, an international media body said on Friday.
The Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) said the latest attacks on reporters condemning many of them as “enemies of the state” appeared on the Sri Lankan defence ministry website on Thursday.
Such statements, INSI Director Rodney Pinder said in a statement sent to Reuters in Geneva, “risk encouraging those who have used extreme violence against journalists and other news professionals in the country.
“This must stop immediately and the (Sri Lankan) government must assure the news community of its independence and safety before ruthless elements are emboldened to take more violent action against journalists,” Pinder added.
He said he was drawing the situation to the attention of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is required under a Security Council resolution to make regular reports on the safety of journalists and other media personnel.
Amnesty International says that at least 12 media workers in the country have been killed over the past two years, while others had been abducted, tortured or illegally detained over the past two years.
In a global survey, INSI — which has members from around the world and works to improve safety of journalists working in dangerous situations — put Sri Lanka 14th of 70 countries where journalists had died trying to do their job since 1996.
Another media body, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in April put Sri Lanka 5th — just behind Iraq, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Colombia — on an “Impunity Index” of the number of unsolved murders of journalists between 1998 and 2007. (Reporting by Robert Evans; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Jon Boyle)

 

A malicious “patriotism” and its impact on media and journalists

June 6, 2008 at 12:26 pm  by Ruwanminee Wickremasinghe
Journalists in Sri Lanka are trying to recollect whether they had a worse time under the regime of President Ranasinghe Premadasa when during the height of a crackdown on a JVP insurrection many media personnel were killed or simply disappeared, or if the regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is moved ahead of that dark era and is fast creating a special niche for himself as the biggest suppressor of whatever media freedom is there in this country.
Journalists in Sri Lanka have to admit, especially those in the private media that how much ever we may like to fool ourselves into believing we are truly “independent” journalists, this is far from the truth. All journalists have to work within limits and it is the interests of big businesses who come in the guise of advertisers who really decide where journalists should get off. But that does not mean we cannot preserve at least this level of freedom that we have to write and in turn safeguard the right of the citizens of this country to have access to another point of view than which the government wants to force down their throats.
Getting back to what I started out with, I talked to several journalists who lived through that Premadasa period and are still practicing journalists; the majority is of the view that journalists in this country have never had a witch-hunt of this magnitude launched against them as under the present regime.
For a President who during the late 80s /early 90s was one of the strongest advocates of human right and media freedom, nothing could be more shameful. In the last Presidential polls that brought him to power, President Rajapaksa portrayed himself as media friendly and exploited the good will he generated among media personnel to his full advantage to help his rise to the highest position in the land. Sadly less than three years into his six year term, he seems to have forgotten much of that and other than paying lip service to upholding media freedom and holding proper inquires into attacks against media personnel and institutions,  done little to stop the escalating attacks on journalists, both in the state and private  institutions.
The Government’s official Defence website devotes much of its time and effort to slander and label media personnel who do not toe the official line as “LTTE agents” and have no qualms about calling them traitors.  In its latest article titled” Deriding the war heroes for a living – the ugly face of “Defence Analysts” in Sri Lanka”, the article concludes ,”The Defence Ministry expects all the responsible media professionals to comprehend that soldiers are in a noble mission; i.e.: to rid the country from the scourge of terrorism.  Thus, the Ministry does not find any other word better than a “Traitor” to call whoever attempts to show the soldiers as thieves or fools by making false allegations and raising baseless criticism against them.”
Which in other words means that any sort of misdeeds done by members of the armed forces needs to be kept well and truly swept under the carpet as such exposure would demoralize them.  Why didn’t the pundits at the Defence Ministry realize that it is the extravagances and waste and corruption by a handful of people in the military that is demoralizing the men and women who serve in the military and not the writings of journalist? It is a well known fact that whatever corrupt practices that take place in the military are done at higher level, while the majority of the men and women who serve in the lower ranks and who are the majority of these who put their lives on the line in this on going war, have no hand in these unsavorily acts. It is they who are disgusted by what their own senior people do and are supportive of journalist who exposes corruption in their organizations.
For the Government which is facing  crisis on all fronts,  economic, social  or political, using journalists as  the scapegoat to cover its sins may help in the short terms but the long term repercussions will far more serious. By crippling the independent media, the government is also effectively stepping on the fundamental rights of the people of this country guaranteed in the Constitution. If every citizen is entitled to the freedom of speech and expression including publication, how constitutional is it for the Government to use the pretext of its quest to achieve an “honorable peace” to terrorize journalists? With no sane voices to be heard in this government, it will be those with their misguided notions of patriotism who will be crying for the blood of more journalists who will be heard loudly.

www.goundviews.org

Sri Lanka issues media guidelines – The Hindu

COLOMBO: Amid growing concern in the media over what is perceived as high-handedness of the Defence Ministry towards journalists critical of the current war in the nation, the Sri Lanka Defence Ministry has formulated new guidelines for the media.
The guidelines, in the form a lengthy advisory posted on the ministry’s website, come amid heated exchanges between the media and the Defence Ministry over the recent move by the Defence Secretary to summon representatives of the government-controlled media house to discuss matters related to coverage of defence matters.
In response to charges that the Defence Secretary’s move amounted to intimidation of the media, the ministry asserted the government has the right to summon journalists to discuss defence-related issues.
Rising tensions
For several weeks now, relations between sections of the media and the government have been strained on issues related to the war’s coverage. The recent abduction and subsequent release of a defence editor of an English weekly after severe beating further aggravated the situation.
The government denied any role in the abduction. However, the police’s failure to apprehend the culprits strengthened suspicions that the government was hiding something. Against this backdrop, the latest guidelines to the media have triggered a controversy. It has been issued under the heading, “Deriding the war heroes for a living — the ugly face of ‘defence analysts’ in Sri Lanka.” It reiterated what was termed as “its stance over the irresponsible defence reportage,” and said the ministry would take necessary measures to stop “this journalistic treachery.” The advisory said: “Thus, whoever attempts to reduce the public support to the military by making false allegations and directing baseless criticism at armed forces is supporting the terrorists who continuously murder citizens of Sri Lanka.”
The guidelines list criticism of military operations, promotion schemes, procurement and unethical methods to obtain sensitive information as issues of concern. Anybody breaching the norms would be considered as “traitors,” it said.
“Military operations are planned and conducted by the officers with 30-40 years of service… The ministry is of the view that it is no one other than the officers who are qualified to plan, conduct, and analyse military operations. Also, the Ministry does not consider those who call themselves ‘defence analysts’ in the media possess any military education or experience to make any serious defence analysis,” it said.
Further, the guidelines said: “Any journalist that lures a soldier to give away information he is not authorised to give is instigating him or her to breach the military discipline. Likewise, if such journalists lure the soldier by exploiting his/her personal grievances, weaknesses, ego, and personal disputes or even by bribery; the journalist is inflicting an irreparable damage to one of the most valuable national asset.”
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