MEDIA-SRI LANKA: Press Fights its Own War

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Aug 7 2001 (IPS) - As government troops pounded Sri Lanka’s embattled northern Jaffna peninsula in October 1995, journalists from the city’s main newspaper joined hundreds of civilians fleeing from the area to safer ground.

They did not go alone however. ‘Udayan’ newspaper journalists and editors loaded a printing machine, a generator and newsprint onto the truck and moved to Sarasalai, 15 km away from Jaffna, and began publishing the newspaper from a temporary office.

“We published the newspaper from this temporary location for six months to April 1996,” recalled Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, the Tamil-language newspaper’s associate editor.

Loosely translated into English, ‘Udayan’ means morning. The name fits a newspaper that has always risen at daybreak despite the difficulties of operating in a war zone. Jaffna, mainly populated by minority Tamils, is the seat of the Tamil guerrilla revolt for a separate state.

The October 1995 drama is nothing compared to the bullets, bombs and mayhem the paper and its journalists have braved during ‘Udayan’s 16-year old history.

“We have faced it all — threats and harassment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas, other militant groups and Sri Lankan troops. It is difficult but we are prepared for the worst,” said Vithyatharan, adding that most civilians in Jaffna now take trouble in their stride.

That is evident in how civilians cope with the war. A young child playing with a toy who did not flinch when a bomb exploded near his house is an illustration given by child psychologists as an example of how children have been numbed by the violence in their environment.

Other journalists, who worked for Jaffna newspapers in the past and are now based in Colombo, recalled the difficult times. “We used to hide in bunkers in the newspaper compound during bombing raids by the Sri Lanka air force,” said a journalist who worked for the now-defunct ‘Eeelanadu’ newspaper.

While newspapers in the city have come and gone due to bankruptcy, economic troubles or simply been seized by rebel forces, ‘Udayan’ has struggled, suffered but held its own and engaged in its own freedom struggle.

The publishers of ‘Udayan’, which has grown to a 14-page newspaper from three when it started in 1985, are going one step further now. They are helping promote visits by journalists from the majority Sinhalese-dominated south and going to great lengths to make the stay of visitors as comfortable as possible.

“We would like more and more journalists to visit the north and see the situation for themselves. We are prepared to host them,” Vithyatharan said, adding he was planning to refurnish his family home into a guesthouse for visiting journalists.

Despite the war, Jaffna’s newspaper industry is flourishing and more vibrant than any other city outside Colombo. That is also because residents are desperate for information and rely on the print media for news inside the peninsula and outside. There is little or no competition from television or radio.

In fact, state-television ‘Rupavahini’, which has the largest reach amongst the seven Colombo-based television stations — cannot be seen in Jaffna due to communication problems.

When ‘Swarnavahini’, a private Colombo-based channel, showed a cricket tournament from Sharjah in which Sri Lanka was participating, the action was in slow motion through the game.

News channels from neighbouring India, about 30 km across the Palk Strait, are clearer.

When ‘Udayan’ hit the newsstands in 1985, there were two other papers — ‘Eelanadu’ and ‘Eelamurusu’ followed by ‘Murasoli’ in 1986. In 1987 the ‘Eelamurusu’ was taken over by the LTTE and the ‘Eeelanadu’, the oldest paper launched in the 1960s, was also taken over by the Tigers in 1994 due to a labour dispute at the paper.

The ‘Saturday Review’, which emerged in the 1980s as the only English newspaper in Jaffna, made a major impact but survived for just five to six years.

Since 1996, however, the ‘Udayan’ has been the only newspaper in Jaffna as others have either crumbled under pressure from government and rebel forces or were uncompetitive.

“We have been threatened by all militant groups during the 1980s and the 1990s,” said Vithyatharan. He says the current environment in Jaffna, which is under the control of government forces, for newspapers to operate is much better than in the past though there is no absolute freedom.

“There is pressure from the government and the LTTE and other militant groups but we have learnt to manage this given our experience in the past,” he said.

For instance, at one point members of the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF), annoyed by what was being published, fired mortar rounds at the newspaper office. It fell some distance away, but 40 people were killed in that attack.

“The IPKF had bombed two other newspapers the previous day and were targetting our premises the following day,” Vithyatharan recounted.

From 1987 to 1990, the Indian government sent peacekeepers to implement an Indian-brokered peace deal between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers. That deal fell apart in months, after the Tamil rebels turned their guns against Indian soldiers.

‘Udayan’ has also suffered due to bombing by government forces. When the Jaffna Fort fell to the Tigers in 1991, the Tigers were piqued with the paper for reporting that the army had withdrawn from the Fort instead of “being chased away”.

“We were about to be closed by the Tigers but a bombing raid by the air force in fact saved us,” said Vithyatharan. The Tigers then shifted strategy and helped the paper to recover in a bid to show the authorities that the “public voice would not be stifled”.

‘Udayan’ has even published inside bunkers during the severe bombing raids in the late 1980s. The paper had three bunkers, which are still being maintained in the compound, complete with printing press and a generator and space for about 50 people to work.

‘Udayan’, in addition to its 14,000-plus circulation, also has a loyal following on the Internet. “We get thousands of hits per day from Sri Lankan Tamils living abroad who want to check the obituaries on check on developments in Jaffna,” Vithyatharan said.