Sri Lanka Country Report

Sri Lanka Country Report Sri Lanka has enjoyed 61 years of Independence. During these 61 years Sri Lanka’s media has faced threats of a grave nature but and the gravest of them all is taking place with the numerous killings and brutal attacks on journalists, media workers and media institutions which has taken place in the past four years. The following incidents depict the grave nature of the threat to Sri Lanka’s media. Six days into the year 2009, one of Sri Lanka’s most popular and largest media organizations, MTV/Sirasa media organization was subject to the most brutal attack on Sri Lanka’s soil. An unidentified armed group stormed the building of the said institution, attacking its employees brutally while exploding bombs destroying parts of the building. Two days subsequent to the said attack, Lasantha Wickramatunga, a prominent editor of a leading weekly newspaper was gunned down in full public view in a high security zone while he was driving his car to work. On 24th January, the editor of the Rivira newspaper, Upali Tennakoon and his wife were seriously injured when attacked in the most brutal manner while he on his way to his office. On 24th February, N. Vidyadaran, editor of the Udayan newspaper, the main newspaper published in Jaffna (a northern city in Sri Lanka), was abducted by a group of unidentified men while he was attending a funeral of a friend was arrested by the police when he was dumped on the wayside by the abductors and to make matters worse was kept in custody for a few months prior to release. Three weeks after the said incident, Professor of Mass Communication of the Sri Jayewardenepura University, Dhammika Ganganath Dissanayake was abducted from his home. He was later found released in a less populated area in Colombo. To the disbelief of many, the abduction S. Guruparan of the tamil radio channel, Suriyan FM, the gross attack and torture of Journalist of the Nation newspaper Keith Noyar and the attack on Namal Perera of the Sri Lanka Press Institute and Mahendra Ratnaweera, the press secretary of the office of the British High Commission in close proximity of army camp preceded the attacks that took place in 2009. Award winning journalist and secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, Poddala Jayantha was the most recent victim of these systematic attacks on the media when he was abducted, beaten and tortured until the bones of one leg were shattered by an armed unidentified gang while he was on his way home is and was left lying in a less populated area. Jayantha still remains in hospital recovering slowly from the brutal injuries inflicted on him. However the abductions does not seem to have ended even after the end of the war in Sri Lanka as former journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda, was abducted from his home and later released by an unidentified gang after hours of questioning. Our investigations have revealed that these assassinations, attacks and abductions have been carried out by a group of persons professionally trained to carry out abductions and brutal attacks on the media in the said systematic manner. It’s also evident from these attacks that these attacks have taken place in populated high security zones while the abductors seemed to have reached the places where the victims were released after crossing major military and police check points unnoticed. Surprisingly, the Police and other relevant authorities have failed to take any probable suspect into custody over the attacks and killing of journalists. It’s only in these circumstances that many local journalists and journalists attached to international news agencies have fled the country. Those journalists who continue to remain in Sri Lanka and fight against this trend continue their yeoman service at great peril to their lives. While the threats continue, now the Government through various statements shows an inclination to reactivate the most dreaded and oppressive Sri Lanka’s

Press Commission. The Prevention of Terrorism Act and Emergency Regulations continue to be used against the media, the recent conviction and 20 year rigorous imprisonment sentence meted out to Journalist J.S. Tissanayagam is the prime example of the use of every possible method shutting out the media. The self censorship observed by most journalists and the reporting of only the Government’s version of news items indicates that these methods seem to be having an effect on the media. The ban on news reporting in northern Sri Lanka continues even after the Government announced the end of the brutal 30 year old civil war the end of which left hundreds of thousands of people displaced and continue to live in government run shelters in north Sri Lanka. Therefore the issues with respect to these Internally Displaced People (IDPs) of Sri Lanka’s civil war remain unreported and hidden from the world. Though local government elections were held in two northern cities (Jaffna and Vavuniya) after a few decades, the media did not have access to these areas during the pre election and election time limiting the scope for freedom of expression and access to information of the people of Sri Lanka. It’s true that only the journalist and the media of Sri Lanka are vested with the responsibility of overcoming all these challenges posed before them. This could only be made possible if the media stands as one against these challenges. However, unfortunately there is no such consensus within the media and media organizations continue to follow their own agenda hampering the possibility of overcoming the gravest threat posed to the media of Sri Lanka. This situation has given a free hand to the persons in power in Sri Lanka while the media culture for public benefit remains a dream. The absence of a platform to bring all journalists and media institutions and organizations together is catastrophic for the future of Sri Lanka’s media. The trend in Sri Lanka’s multi party system has been for the ruling party to repress the media for the political survival of the party in power. The opposition uses the repression as a reason for garnering political power. The present government when previously in the opposition used media repression as a reason to garner support to defeat the present opposition when in government. The present opposition also used several methods to repress the media. In anticipation of reforms and new media and political culture, journalists and media organization support the opposition party to come into power. Unfortunately, to date the political parties have never fulfilled this promise and the hope of fulfillment is like the hope created by the mirage in the desert. The Free Media Movement (FMM) is of the view that, Journalists, Media Organizations and the Public should form a coalition to change this situation immediately. We believe that it’s important to people informed of the situation locally as well as internationally. The implementation of the acclaimed code of ethics which provides for self regulation will help build a better media culture and contribute immensely to the building of public opinion against repression against the media. It’s our strong belief that a strong public opinion against the suppression of the media can be voiced with the assistance and determination of the Journalists and Media Organizations which will in return ensure greater protection for the journalists and media organizations protecting the Freedom of Expression and the Right to Information in Sri Lanka. Free Media Movement