RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Media Take To The Street In Anti-Gov’t Protests

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Jul 21 1999 (IPS) - Sri Lanka’s independent media, which propelled the government to power, have en masse turned against the ruling People’s Alliance after last week’s assault on journalists by men believed to be from the presidential guard.

At least 11 journalists were beaten up by dozens of men carrying wooden poles and iron pipes during an opposition-led demonstration in the capital Thursday. Cameras were also smashed in what was described by the media as a premeditated attack on journalists.

Ironically the victims included two journalists from state-owned newspapers and radio. Newspapers condemned the attack and blamed it on members of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s presidential security division.

For many journalists, last week’s incident resembled the October 1992 assault on journalists covering an anti-government demonstration outside the capital’s Fort railway station.

That triggered a media outcry against the government and eventually led to the fall of the then United National Party (UNP) regime in the 1994 polls.

“Are we looking at a similar scenario this time?” asked one Colombo-based political analyst.

Then, supporters of the government had attacked journalists and smashed their cameras. The government, in a feeble attempt to downplay the incident, had said it was the work of rail commuters who were annoyed at being blocked at the entrance by protestors.

The Free Media Movement (FMM), Sri Lanka’s biggest organisation of journalists which helped install Kumaratunga and her government in power in 1994, is planning a protest march to the president’s residence, Wednesday. The UNP is planning another protest in the city, July 22.

Neither national nor presidential polls in Sri Lanka are due until next year but speculation is rife that beleaguered President Kumaratunga may call early elections in December.

Political analyst, Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu said the opposition protest last week could have been blunted peacefully and effectively or even ignored, instead of using brute force.

“A whole new bunch of political martyrs have been created who will tell the tale of their teargas ordeal for some time to come,” he wrote in a weekly commentary in the ‘Sunday Leader’ newspaper.

“It was a planned attack on journalists, and the worst I can think of,” said Victor Ivan, respected editor of the independent Sinhala daily, ‘Ravaya’.

“The journalists were identified and beaten up. This is adverse to the government. If Wayamba was bad, this is three times worst,” Ivan, one of the veterans of the free media movement in the late 1980s, noted.

The Wayamba (Northwest) provincial election in January this year was one of the worst on record, with attacks on polling stations, intimidation of polling officials and voters, stuffing and tampering of ballot boxes by armed supporters of political parties and the hijacking of ballot boxes.

Much of the violence, including assaults on women, was blamed on government politicians. Opposition parties, polls monitors and civic groups urged the Elections Commissioner to cancel the poll and call for fresh elections.

Last Thursday’s city march to the residence of President Kumaratunga was organised by the UNP to protest against the government’s failure to fulfil election promises. The ruling PA completes five years in office next month.

Analysts say that the UNP could not have asked for a more appropriate show of animosity against the government, particularly with elections round the corner. The government blamed the attack on supporters of UNP politicians.

The government’s relations with the media have been on a slippery slope in recent years. The press is more vibrant and defiant today than under the UNP government when journalists were routinely beaten up if they didn’t toe the line. But the PA has a long way to go in fulfilling its election promise of removing draconian legislation that impede the progress of the free press.

Recent criticism has centered on the government’s continued ban on coverage of the war by the Sri Lankan media since June 5, 1998, and plans to enforce the antiquated Official Secrets Act, which bars reporting of cabinet news or other security-sensitive information.

Last week, a group of parliamentarians both from the ruling party and the opposition filed a motion in Parliament seeking the immediate reformation of media laws in the country.

The group, including opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe and Srimani Athulathmudali of the United Lalith Front, members of the ruling alliance, urged the repeal of the Press Council laws and the introduction of a Freedom of Information Act or an Access to Information Act.

While acknowledging the rights of citizens to be provided with an effective remedy when defamed by the media, it suggested scrapping current laws relating to criminal defamation and replaced by more modern laws that exist in other countries.

Last year, Sinha Ratnatunga, editor of the ‘Sunday Times’, was convicted for mis-reporting that the president had attended a midnight birthday party of a fellow politician at a plush hotel. A jail term of 18 months was imposed on Ratnatunga but the sentence was suspended for a period of seven years. Three other newspaper editors have similar defamation cases against them.

Sri Lanka’s press is not always right, argues a senior lecturer at the Colombo University who calls the media “very irresponsible”. The media’s loyalties are divided between the government and the opposition.

“The media acts with impunity today and when wrong or untrue stories are published, corrections or apologies are rare. Even if an apology is published, the newspaper has the last word and tries to justify its story,” she said.