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RIGHTS
Sri Lanka’s Election Aftermath – Media Under Attack
Analysis by IPS Correspondents
COLOMBO, Feb 9, 2010 (IPS) - Sri Lankan journalists, for whom intimidation, threats, assault and killings seem
to have become unavoidable professional hazards, are bracing themselves for a
fresh confrontation with the government as curbs on reporting intensify.
In recent weeks, one journalist has disappeared, a newspaper has been
sealed, only to be forced open by a court order while a few journalists and
media workers have been in hiding since last month’s presidential election,
which was won handily by incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
"The situation had worsened after a brief respite (general feeling of freedom)
a few weeks before the polls," one veteran journalist and editor, who declined
to be named for fear of repercussions, told IPS. "There was a sense of
freedom or a kind of lull during the election campaign, but when the
authorities feared opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka could win,
intimidation against the media resumed."
Lakshman Gunasekera, a senior journalist and former editor of the state-
owned ‘Sunday Observer’, said the media not only continues to face serious
repression but also may "anticipate worsening conditions … as the country
enters yet another phase of intense political contest for the parliamentary
elections expected in April."
Newspaper reports this week said three journalists have been arrested in
connection with an alleged coup conspiracy against the President by the
losing candidate and former Army commander Fonseka. The official website
of the government’s Information Department, in a report on Sunday, said
several journalists were also to be questioned over the alleged coup plot,
which the defeated candidate said was a cover-up for an election fraud.
Fonseka, the candidate of a string of opposition parties, polled 40 percent of
the votes against Rajapaksa’s sweeping 57 percent. Both had banked on their
role in ending in May 2009 the near 30-year-long battle with Tamil
separatist guerrillas.
However, the losing candidate and other opposition leaders who backed him
allege manipulation of votes and claim Rajapaksa lost the poll.
Reporters present at a Colombo hotel where Fonseka, the former army
commander who led the military troops to victory against the rebels, and his
team were staying on the eve of the election, are to be questioned to
ascertain further details of the alleged plot to assassinate the president, the
government website said.
The government also placed curbs on media reporting of military matters
while issuing a special directive in which chiefs of the armed forces and other
military officers are barred from giving interviews relating to promotions and
transfers unless approved.
In the Feb. 2 directive to the media, Lakshman Hulugalle, director general of
the Media Centre for National Security, said only designated military
spokespersons were permitted to give such information.
The government is said to be purging the army and the police of any
elements seen loyal to Fonseka and those who are believed to have refused to
carry out ‘illegal’ orders by the authorities during the elections.
The ‘Sunday Times’ newspaper said this week that more than 150 police
officers had been transferred while 14 army officers, including five just next
to the rank of the army commander, had been sent on compulsory leave for
their alleged involvement in politics, essentially in helping Fonseka during the
campaign.
Last week, eight media groups, including publishers and editors, appealed to
President Rajapaksa to intervene in the media crisis and ensure the
restoration of public confidence in democracy and that "this unhealthy trend
is curbed." They urged him to help locate the whereabouts of Pradeep
Ekneliyagoda, a journalist at a Sinhala-language newspaper critical of the
President, who has been missing since Jan. 24, two days before the poll.
"All these incidents taken as a whole are creating a sense of terror within the
media industry … due to the intimidation and suppression taking place in
different parts of the country by unruly groups targeting members of the
opposition. We believe that if this escalating situation is not brought under
control immediately, there will be unforeseen repercussions," the joint letter
said.
Sunil Jayasekera, secretary of the Free Media Movement (FMM), which was
among the signatories of the letter and Sri Lanka’s biggest media defender, is
doubtful of a government response to the Feb. 1 letter.
"We have sent four letters in the past 18 months to the President urging him
to intervene, but there has been no response and neither has the intimidation
stopped," he told IPS.
Media groups say 33 journalists and media workers have been killed since
the election of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance to power in 2004
with the current President Mahinda Rajapaksa as its prime minister. Scores of
others have been assaulted, harassed or threatened, at least 34 journalists
have fled abroad and sought asylum, mostly in Europe.
The biggest case to date involved the assassination in January 2009 of
Lasantha Wickrematunga, the award-winning editor of the English-language
‘Sunday Leader’, allegedly by elements of the military. His assailants are still
at large.
Some political and defence correspondents also fear that their phones are
tapped.
FMM’s Jayasekera said: "Some media workers have been assaulted while some
journalists are in hiding (after the election)."
The government blocked at least three news websites before the Jan. 26 poll
while the editor of another website is in hiding.
"Several websites had been blocked, the Sinhala-language Lanka newspaper
editor was arrested while the newspaper was sealed by police. However, the
newspaper reopened on Tuesday after the management won a court order,"
Jayasekera said.
Tough action is also being taken against dozens of journalists working at
state-owned newspapers, radio and television stations who called for fair and
impartial reporting of the polls campaign.
"What we did was to heed the Elections Commissioner and the Supreme
Court, which ordered state media institutions to be impartial and give equal
coverage to all candidates contesting the poll. We are now being victimised
for it," said Herbert Kumara Alagiyawanna, a senior producer at a state-
owned television, who was sacked arbitrarily.
He said of the 70 journalists who joined the call for impartial reporting, one
has been sacked, nine interdicted, three sent on compulsory leave while 21
others were required to explain their actions. A couple of journalists were
also assaulted by individuals identified with ruling party.
"We want to file a fundamental rights case in the Supreme Court. Some senior
officers working in state television also insulted the judges, saying they don’t
care about judgments," he said.
Under election rules, state media, being publicly funded institutions, are
obligated to give fair and equal coverage to all contestants. When government
media appeared biased for the President, the Elections Commissioner ordered
the institutions to toe the line.
When the state media refused to comply, the Commissioner protested to the
Supreme Court, which in turn upheld the election body’s order. But even the
Supreme Court’s ruling was ignored by the media bosses at these
institutions, noted Alagiyawanna.
Journalist Gunasekera, who is also the president of the Sri Lanka chapter of
the South Asian Free Media Association, says the open flouting by
government authorities of both Supreme Court and the Election
Commissioner directives in relation to the media has added to the restrictions
and intensified the intimidation imposed on the mass media.
"The sense that attackers against the media enjoy impunity from prosecution,
which had existed even before the election, has now been heightened," he
said, through this manifest disregard of the Supreme Court directives.
(END)
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