SRI LANKA: Media Targeted as Civil War Looms Large

By Amantha Perera Reprint | | Print |

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Jan 15 2006 (IPS) - There was nothing unusual about the two police officers leaning languidly against their patrol car and watching a group of protesting journalists in Colombo on a cloudy afternoon last week. To all appearances, it was business as usual.

There was nothing unusual about the two police officers leaning languidly against their patrol car and watching a group of protesting journalists in Colombo on a cloudy afternoon last week. To all appearances, it was business as usual.

But beneath the calm façade, the journalists were nervous and sensed that, once again, they were under threat in a country with a history of attempts to muzzle the media. And then, they were protesting about a sensitive issue – the use of emergency laws to harass colleagues working for the Tamil language press.

Highlighting the confrontational mood was a complaint lodged with the country’s police chief, on Wednesday, by the editor of a leading newspaper, Lasantha Wikramatunge, that he had been intimidated by none other than President Mahinda Rajapakse himself.

Relations between the media and the government have been worsening after Dec.4 when government troops in the Tamil-dominated north and east of the island began to come under increased attacks by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Since then, more than 75 security personnel have been killed in attacks and ambushes bringing a truce entered into between the LTTE and the government in February 2002 to the brink and threatening revival of two decades of civil strife which has riven the Tamil and Sinhala ethnic groups on the island.

Following the electoral victory in November of Rajapakse, who is allied to vocally pro-Sinhala groups, there have been fears of a revival of the civil war and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has warned of a return to arms if the new government does not come up with a power devolution package.

Faced with mounting attacks, the military has intensified security arrangements and search operations, especially in northern Jaffna. The grouse of the media is that journalists working for the Tamil media are being singled out for harassment.

Vincent Jeyan, Jaffna-based correspondent of the ‘Thinakaran’ newspaper said he was assaulted by army personnel while covering a protest march organised by the Jaffna University. “An officer hit me with a wire and soldiers followed with everything they had, rifles, staves and chains. They shoved me, tore my bag and took away my cellular phone,” Jeyan recalled. “We were threatened with death and made to run in front of military vehicles.”

Jeyan, who was assaulted even after he identified himself as an accredited journalist, had to be taken to hospital for treatment. The motorcycle of Ratnam Dayaparam, reporter for ‘Thinakkural’, the Jaffna provincial edition of a national newspaper, was also damaged.

In Jaffna, Tamil newspaper offices have been searched and Tamil journalists detained. Even Colombo-based journalists have found it difficult to work in Jaffna where soldiers are on edge.

The defence ministry has not denied that such incidents occur, but insists that there has been no systematic targeting of Tamil journalists. “These are civil protests and our main objective is to disperse unruly crowds and sometimes you can not differentiate journalists who are amidst the protestors,” Brig. Athula Jayawardene, an official at defence ministry said.

Jayawardene said instructions have been issued to recognize media accreditation issued by the government.

Part of the military’s jumpiness stems from the nature of the attacks – claymore mines detonated by unidentified attackers in populated areas. To complicate matters a civilian organisation (rather than the LTTE) has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks and said that it had armed members ready to take on government forces.

During the weekend, this group, the Tamil Resurgence Force, announced that it would soon begin targeting smaller military camps in Jaffna.

Despite the military’s assurances, journalists and media rights groups see the overall trend to disregard their role as negative and are demanding a lifting of censorship.

“The media is the main line of information for people in Sri Lanka, especially in critical times like this. We have seen instances in the past where there has been attempts to control the media. We have to keep applying pressure here and internationally as well, to resist any attempts at muzzling the press,” Lakshman Gunesekera, president of the Sri Lanka chapter of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) told IPS.

Blanket censorship is nothing new on the island, the last episode being in 1999 when the military and the LTTE were engaged in weeks of fierce battles around Elephant pass, just south of Jaffna.

“It does not matter which language they work in, the press should not be prevented from carrying out official work. We have seen in the past month incidents where Tamil journalists were assaulted, newspaper offices searched and the military not respecting official accreditation,” Sunanda Deshapriya, spokesperson for the country’s main media rights group, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said.

The FMM has written to defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse seeking an urgent meeting to discuss the situation.

Editors and leading journalists from the Tamil media have already had a meeting with defence authorities, and have been promised action. “We are in solidarity with our Tamil colleagues, we will keep fighting as long as the emergency regulations are used as cover to harass the press. That is the only way- to protest peacefully,” N. M. Ameen, president of the Muslim Media Forum said.

“What we have is a simple solution really; don’t use the emergency regulations to harass the press. It is the same thing, the media is being harassed both by the government and the LTTE when it is critical, or even when just being objective,” Deshapriya said.

Meanwhile, the allegations made by Wikramatunge, editor of the English weekly ‘The Sunday Leader’, that President Rajapakse threatened him over the phone has added new dimension to the souring relationship between the press and Rajapakse’s new government.

For his part, the President has denied that he threatened or used foul language but said that he simply wanted Wikramatunge to be impartial in his coverage.

The Sunday Leader has been one of the most critical newspapers of the new Rajapakse administration.

“The seriousness of a mere allegation that the President has allegedly used abusive and threatening language against a senior editor sends shock waves in the media community and serves as a sombre reminder of the insecure and dangerous situation that journalists in Sri Lanka have to face. The FMM strongly defends the right to criticize stories published by the media provided all such criticisms are made within a democratic framework,” Deshapriya said.

Most of the protesting journalists are aware that it was pressure by groups like the FMM that has guaranteed at least limited freedom in their work.

“We have faced far worse autocratic administrations in the past, and have stood up to themà this time too there will be no difference,” Gunasekera said. In the distance, the two police officers looked on.