kshama Ranawan at a media protest, 10th Dec 2007
By Kshama Ranawana
A battered, bruised, cowed and polarized media is all that is left of the profession in Sri Lanka.
That is the result of three years of relentless attacks on reporters and media institutions that dared to uphold professional standards and protect the “publics’ right to know”.
Since 2006, Sri Lanka’s media and rights activists have been braving a ruthless campaign to silence them. As the battle against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam intensified, so did the governments bid to silence any reportage of the war, unless it toed the official version. While legislation introduced in December of that year effectively narrowed the space within which the war could be reported, those who dared highlight human rights abuses, criticized or commented on the war and protested the intimidation of the media were labeled “Kotiya” (Tigers) as the LTTE is referred to. Journalists and media institutions partisan to the government jumped on the bandwagon of tarnishing their colleagues with the “Koti” brush. Abductions and assault of journalists became commonplace, with no action taken by the government to arrest the trend.
The oft’ repeated phrase of the media minister, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, after each atrocity committed against a media person, was that the matter was being investigated and that action would be taken once all details were in. To date, however, no perpetrator has been brought to book. And, as attacks on the media heightened, so did the fear and need for self-censorship. It was left to a small coterie of journalists and civil society activists to continue the protests until the final nail was hammered in with the brutal killing of Sunday Leader Editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, in January this year. Many who feared for their lives, including Poddala Jayantha, veteran journalist and General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, left the country soon after that. He was the only one who had returned a few weeks ago.
The recent “revelations” by the Inspector General of Police on the government controlled Independent Television Network that several journalists , mostly Sinhalese, were in the payroll of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is nothing new. Poddala Jayantha’s face was used in the report.
The allegation of allegiance with the Tigers has been made time and time again , since mid-2006. Last year, in virulent attacks on the media, the Defence Ministry website claimed it would take “all necessary measures to stop this journalistic treachery against the country,” adding ,”Those who commit such treachery should identify themselves with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rather than showing themselves as crusaders of media freedom” .
In May last year, both Poddala and the President of the SLWJA, journalist Sanath Balasooriya were summoned before Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and warned against criticizing the government. The ominous message he had for them was reported in the Sunday Times on-line of June 1, 2008:
“Don’t you understand what I am trying to say? If you don’t agree and continue with what you are doing, what has to happen to you will happen. There is no necessity to have defence columns to discuss military matters. Laws will be introduced to restrict reporting on the conduct of military or on Commanders of the Armed Forces. The military will campaign for such laws. We can see whether the voice of the military is stronger than the campaign of the journalists.
Journalists: You are making a serious threat on our lives.
Defence Secretary: No, No. I am not doing it. I am definitely not threatening your lives. I am not. It will happen from where it happens. Our services are appreciated by 99 per cent of the people. They love the Army Commander (Lt. Gen. Fonseka) and the Army. Those who love us do what is required. We cannot help that”.
Just a year later, on Monday, June 1, Poddala, who was returning home from work was abducted in the suburban town of Nugegoda. He was later dumped in an adjacent town, brutally wounded with parts of his head and beard shaved off. In hindsight the attack comes as no surprise. Days before the incident, the State owned “Dinamina” newspaper for which Poddala worked published an editorial calling for the stoning of bearded journalists who were in the pay of the Tigers. The privately owned “Divaina” newspaper, meanwhile, had called for the death penalty for Sinhala journalists who received money from the LTTE.
While the IGP is busy making these accusation, he and the men under him have not yet solved a single attack on media persons. Interestingly, Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa has denied any knowledge of the IGP’s allegations.
If the accusations that journalists were in the pay of the LTTE are to be believed, then one must also question the roles played by successive Sri Lankan governments and the many deals that have been made with the LTTE. The Premadasa 
regime which governed the country in late 1980’s is alleged to have re-armed the LTTE to fight the Indian Peace Keeping Force, that was in the North of Sri Lanka to fight the Tigers under the Indo-Sri Lanka accord signed by President J R Jayawardena.
Mangala Samaraweera, a one time Minister of the Rajapakse government is on record stating that the LTTE was paid off by a mediator to prevent the Tamils of the North from voting in the 2005 Presidential elections that brought Mahinda Rajapakse to power.
If, as alleged, journalists are traitors, then the question must also be asked; is not the fattening of the war chests of the LTTE in a bid to win power not a betrayal of the country? If such monies were paid, we can be rest assured that the cash would have been spent on ammunition to blow up civilians and soldiers, just as Premadasa re-arming the LTTE resulted in the latter turning the guns back on the hands that fed them, as it were.
And yes, investigations must be carried out, not only against journalists but also the arms dealers and scores of others who became millionaires through the war, the governments that paid the tigers, and a probe into human rights abuses by the LTTE and the government should be allowed and the findings made public. The government must also arrest and charge every single person involved in the intimidation of media persons, and name and charge those through whose blessings these dastardly acts have been carried out.
For its part, the police force has not remained inactive this time around, as they have been over the past cases of intimidation. Instead, the two journalists who informed Poddala’s family and alerted the IGP of the abduction were arrested by the Police on charges of compliance with the crime. They are now on bail and have been ordered to appear in Court in August. Their arrest rears yet another danger; no civilian would take the risk of reporting any crime for fear of being charged as a party to the violence.
While the country celebrates the apparent end of the Tigers military prowess, it has also reached the the lowest point for democracy and free-speech in the country’s sixty one years of independence
