One-time media critics of war against LTTE, ‘playing a different tune now’- Defence Secretary

(By : Shamindra Ferdinando)

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090614_02

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that an influential section of print and electronic media which worked overtime against the ruling SLFP-led coalition as it battled the LTTE during the past three years, had now switched sides.

“They are playing a different tune now,” he said, accusing them of being a critical element of the overall strategy directed against the state. Nothing could be as ridiculous as what they say now if one bothered to check their background, he said.

In an interview with The Sunday Island, the veteran soldier said that they had no option now but to play ball with the government following the defeat of the LTTE. They wouldn’t have quit what he called the LTTE’s macabre cause, had LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his chief lieutenants survived the armed forces onslaught, he said.

Responding to our queries, he said that they propagated LTTE lies. “Just go through past issues of national newspapers, you’ll see their strategy,” he said. He said that anti-government propagandists emphasised that the LTTE couldn’t be militarily defeated, the army couldn’t hold liberated areas, the government couldn’t withstand LTTE retaliation and the international community wouldn’t allow Sri Lanka to defeat the LTTE militarily.

Those who were on the payroll of embassies, INGOs and NGOs, painted a picture of death and devastation and a multitude of other issues affecting the displaced, he said. Recalling his much criticised decision to remove all INGOs, including UN agencies and NGOs out of the LTTE-held region by last September, the Defence Secretary said that the media hindered the government strategy. Now that the LTTE had been defeated, they are talking about war heroes, he said, emphasising that they wouldn’t be able to deceive people.

He said that as part of their strategy a section of the media always talked about the ‘deteriorating situation’ in the country. Those who praise war heroes called them killers, he said, urging the public not to be deceived by turncoats. Those who accused us of forcing civilians out of their villagers at the behest of their masters, both here and overseas, had all of a sudden come to the government’s defence, he said.

As long as the LTTE continued with its resistance, the media believed in terrorists’ strength to overwhelm the armed forces, he said. They remained confident even in the first part of last year, he said, adding that he felt embarrassed by the way one time traitors were now bending backwards to please the government.

He admitted that some time back even he found it extremely difficult to get an article published in support of the government’s battle against the LTTE. But they were coming behind us seeking interviews, he said, adding that those who took an unwavering stance on terrorism could be rightly proud of their contribution. He said that the websites run by the Defence Ministry (defence.lk) and the three services spearheaded by the army (army.lk), played a pivotal role in keeping the people informed of the progress.

He said that many of those who bat for the government now had been working against the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the last presidential election held in November 2005. When full scale war erupted in August 2006 following a series of small skirmishes, the same crowd targeted the government, he said.

Commenting on recent criticism of government-sponsored housing projects for the benefit of security forces personnel, he said that a weekly newspaper funded by a political party had attacked a move to provide housing for servicemen. They had been critical of a decision to sell housing units at an affordable rate, very much less than what it had cost the government to servicemen, he said. In the guise of supporting the armed forces, they were now trying to cause another problem, the outspoken official said.

He said that the media had caused immense damage to the war effort by trying to appease their paymasters and various donors who provided a range of perks and privileges to undermine the war effort.

He also criticised efforts by a section of the media to cause trouble at various levels of the command and control structure.

The former Gajaba Regiment veteran said that thwarting attempts by media to derail the military campaign had been a daunting task. They cleverly exploited the situation in the country to paint a bleak picture here and overseas, thereby facilitating an international conspiracy to call Sri Lanka a failed state. They almost succeeded in throwing a lifeline to the LTTE, he said.

He said that those who fill pages with stories and pictures of battlefield victories did precious little when the LTTE remained strong. Even the state media hadn’t been fully focused on the war effort, he said.

Courtesy : The Island

Media repression in Sri Lanka exposed

More than 130 media personnel have been murdered in Sri Lanka since 1981. Many others have been arrested or violently assaulted. Anne Noonan, from the International Federation of Journalists, said Sri Lanka was the most dangerous country for journalists in the Asia-Pacific region. Many journalists are now seeking refuge overseas. Noonan said Sri Lankan journalists of different ethnic backgrounds and political views were working together to defend media freedom. Australia’s Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance has set up a Safety and Solidarity Fund to help Sri Lankan journalists. Noonan highlighted the forthcoming trial of journalist J S Tissanayagam, who was arrested in March 2008. Tissanayagam has been charged with “inciting communal disharmony” in his articles.

The meeting also heard from two Sri Lankan human rights campaigners who are co-conveners of the newly established human rights group Platform for Freedom. J C Weliamuna, a lawyer and executive director of Transparency International Sri Lanka, said journalists had been murdered by all parties to the war between the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil minority struggling for self-determination. The government had waged a “hate campaign” against any media personnel who dissented from government policy.

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, spoke of the importance of free expression. He said that there had been a “war without witnesses” in the north of Sri Lanka. Journalists were often murdered in busy streets in broad daylight, in close proximity to the Sri Lankan government’s security forces. The killers were confident they would never be caught, he said.

The event was organised by People for Human Rights and Equality, a group involving Australians of Sri Lankan origin from different ethnic backgrounds, in association with the Darebin Ethnic Communities Council

Bob Rae, The Sunday Times and Wikipedia

(http://www.groundviews.org/2009/06/14/bob-rae-the-sunday-times-and-wikipedia/#comment-6857)
June 14, 2009  by Sanjana
In what may be a first for a Sunday newspaper in Sri Lanka, a reference from Wikipedia is used to buttress a case for the alleged pro-LTTE bias of Canadian Liberal MP Bob Rae, recently deported from Sri Lanka after first being issued a visa to enter.
The Sunday Times has a full page devoted to a rather long-winded story titled Lanka’s dual track foreign relations. My interest here is not to debate Bob Rae’s real or perceived partiality to the LTTE, but to briefly look at the manner in which a lengthy excerpt from  Rae’s wikipedia entry is used to frame a flimsy argument.
The Sunday Times notes that,
…it was public knowledge that Rae had periodically made strong statements backing the Tiger guerrillas. So much so, there was some evidence in the cyberspace. The Wikipedia, the free, multilingual online encyclopaedia operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, among other things, has these few lines to say about Bob Rae:
“………Rae was a New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament from 1978 to 1982. Then he moved to provincial politics, becoming leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party from February 7, 1982 to June 22, 1996. He served as the 21st Premier of Ontario from October 1, 1990 to June 26, 1995, and was the first person to have led a provincial NDP government east of Manitoba.
“While in office, he brought forward a number of initiatives such as the Social Contract that were unpopular with many traditional NDP supporters. Rae’s subsequent disagreement with the leftward direction of the NDP led him to resign his membership and join the Liberals. He is known as a supporter of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), and has supported openly for a separate State for the Tamils in Sri Lanka by dividing the island in to two…….”
The Wikipedia account was naturally based on Rae’s involvement with Tiger guerrilla activity in Canada. Rae’s protagonists admit Some Liberal MPs in the past attended functions at which the LTTE was prominent, and Liberal governments resisted efforts to designate the Tiger guerrillas a terrorist organization.
Emphasis mine.
Bob Rae’s wikipedia entry as it now stands does feature any reference for or against the LTTE (at the time of writing, his entry was last modified on 13 June 2009 at 19:05hrs). The sentence quoted in the Sunday Times, that “he is known as a supporter of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), and has supported openly for a separate State for the Tamils in Sri Lanka by dividing the island in to two” does not appear at all.
Bob Rae’s profile was  first entered to Wikipedia on 23 June 2003. Upon further investigation, it’s clear that this sentence only appeared on Rae’s profile on Wikipedia on 11th June and was up there for less than 24 hours. The edit with this controversial sentence was made at  6.31hrs on 11 June and  by 17.12hrs, it had been taken out.
In the seven years of Bob Rae’s profile has been on Wikipedia, I find it particularly revealing that The Sunday Times chose to quote an edit freshly made to his profile and up for less than 24 hours.
The sentence suggesting Rae was a support of the LTTE was added by  an anonymous contributor at IP address 219.74.82.40 and edited by a user called Slaphappy, who also corrected other aspects of the edits made by 219.74.82.40.
The jury’s out on the use of Wikipedia as an authoritative source for professional journalism. I use it myself on a daily basis, but given how it can be manipulated and how the quality of entries varies wildly, it’s a source I use with caution and not as an dependable source. In an authoritative take on the uses and abuses of Wikipedia in the newsroom, Wikipedia in the Newsroom by American Journalism Review ends on the following note,
But whatever the verdict on Wikipedia, one thing should not change, says the New York Times’ Johnston: “No matter who your sources are, when you sign your name, you are responsible for every word, every thought, every concept.”
This is where the carelessness, at best, of the Sunday Times comes into play. Noting that “the Wikipedia account was naturally based on Rae’s involvement with Tiger guerrilla activity in Canada” the Sunday Times bases its judgement on data that is hugely suspect and lacks integrity. Further, the strange coincidence of the very short-lived edit to Rae’s profile in Wikipedia precisely matching the lengthy excerpt in the Sunday Times suggest that there may be more than mere journalistic carelessness or ignorance at play here.
In using Wikipedia as it does, the Sunday Times showcases the danger of unprofessional journalism today, parading contested fact as verified information. Ignoring the nature of the web based source and framing the contentious excerpt from Wikipedia in the manner it does, the Sunday Times comes to a damning conclusion over Rae that is not based on any verifiable information. However, the point is that the average reader without the technical skills to investigate the Wikipedia entry would believe what the paper suggests.
And when on Bob Rae’s official website (that finds no mention at all in the story) one finds no evidence of the alleged partiality to the LTTE, one recalls this estimation of the Sunday Times published on Groundviews recently.