Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Headlines, Human Rights, Press Freedom

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: As Violence Rises, Media Climate Declines

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Jun 24 2007 (IPS) - The overhead projector cast a ghastly glow on the larger- than-life picture of Darmarathnam Sivaram, the Sri Lankan Tamil journalist abducted and killed in April 2005.

Colleagues had gathered for his commemorative lecture and the ghostly atmosphere fit right into place. "On the day we remember Siva, his website has been blocked by authorities here," Sunanda Deshapriya, the convener of the Free Media Movement (FMM), wondered aloud just before the lecture.

Two days before the lecture, the popular website tamilnet (www.tamilnet.com) was rendered inaccessible from Sri Lankan servers.

The FMM, the foremost media group in this South Asian nation, charged that the government was behind the move that it called cyber terrorism. Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa denied any government involvement, but none of the local Internet service providers could give a clear answer to why the site was blocked.

Despite the perception that it slants toward the Tamil Tigers, the rebels that have for decades been fighting for a Tamil homeland, the website is widely accessed in Sri Lanka.

The blocking of the site, though, appeared to be a minor distraction compared to events that followed.

Nadesapillai Vidyatharan, editor of the Tamil daily ‘Sudar Oli’, complained that he feared for his life after unknown persons had come looking for him at his new residence in downtown Colombo, the capital.

"We had written an editorial criticising the recent eviction of Tamils from Colombo and supporting court action against the move. Maybe that was the cause," he later said.

Vincent Jeyam, a Tamil journalist working in the volatile Jaffna Peninsula in the north, had to flee to Colombo after he received death threats via mobile text messaging. He had acted as the local guide for an international media monitoring team that toured Jaffna, just before the threat came.

The mission’s findings were bleak but not surprising. "Pressures on the media have multiplied over the recent months with increasing fears for the safety of journalists, especially those operating in the embattled North and East. In Jaffna peninsula, dozens of journalists have been forced to stop working for fear of their safety," it said.

"Jaffna is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist," Jacqueline Park of the International Federation of Journalists remarked.

IFJ, together with International Media Support, International Press Institute, Reporters Without Borders and the South Asia Media Commission, formed the mission that had also published a report on the Sri Lankan press in October, titled ‘Struggle for Survival’.

During the visit by the mission, government authorities had nevertheless pledged to enhance the climate for media freedom.

"In October, we received a commitment from the Government that cases of murdered media workers would be properly investigated with the intention of clearly demonstrating that there is no impunity. However, we saw little to demonstrate that action has been taken," the mission said at the conclusion of its mission.

Since December 2005, 11 media workers have been killed and none of the perpetrators have been found guilty. The mission also blamed the Tamil Tigers and other armed groups for stifling media freedom, but the onus fell on the government.

Journalists and activists have long felt that the environment for independent reporting was declining as ethnic violence once again increased from December 2005. "On either side of this war, we see those in power pressuring the media to fall in line with them. It is the us-and-them mentality – legitimate dissent is made to appear traitorous," Deshapriya told IPS.

The FMM, along with several other organisations, has been in dialogue with the government to push for change, but remains pessimistic about a quick recovery.

During the week when Vidyatharan and Jeyam came under threat, they met with Yapa and other officials from the Ministry of Media. "The government is defending its actions. It does not acknowledge that there is something terribly wrong. The last time also we had officials defending that there was press freedom in the country, but no one could answer why Tamilnet remained blocked," Poddala Jayantha of the Working Journalists Association said in an interview.

The international mission came up with the same findings. "The increasing hostility of the authorities toward the media and the willingness of individual ministers to verbally attack journalists for their perceived failings are encouraging a climate of self-censorship, which is damaging the free flow of information," it said.

Observers see the menacing attitude toward the media as part of the changing political climate since violence reared its head. Despite a Norwegian-brokered, five-year-old ceasefire, in the last 18 months more than 4,500 have died in the fighting, including at least 1,500 civilians, according to the truce monitoring group, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

With government forces and Tamil Tigers now engaged in full frontal confrontations, access to conflict areas have been severely restricted not only to journalists, but members of the monitoring staff and relief agencies as well. The monitoring mission only secured access to Sampoor, close to the eastern harbour town of Trincomalee, in early June after a six- month wait. Government forces had wrested control of the coastal town in late 2006.

"The pressure on the media is part of a wider psychological culture where objective reporting has to be subject to the political or military agenda of those in power," Deshapriya explained.

"The significant erosion of media freedom contributes to and is a result of the marked deterioration of human rights in Sri Lanka today," said Sanjana Hattotuwa, author of a recent report by the Colombo-based think tank, the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Hattotuwa said that all parties in the conflict were blatantly abusing civic rights. "The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the formal name of the Tigers), the Karuna faction (led by a breakaway Tiger leader) and distressingly, the Government itself, are serious violators of media rights and have all repeatedly and severely undermined media freedom."

"The situation is getting worse and now that the Government&#39s censorship of media extends to the web, it shows no signs of improvement in the near future," Hattotuwa said.