Media in 2012

Sri Lanka Summary

No journalist was killed in Sri Lanka in 2012 but the government continued to pile up more pressure on the country’s already weak news and media organizations, especially the independent ones.

Sri Lanka’s state-controlled media called journalists “traitors”. The “traitor” accusation against journalists followed a UN Human Rights Council call for an investigation into the country’s alleged abuses in 2009 during its war against Tamil separatists. The state television did not name the journalists who participated in a UN Human Rights Council meeting, but it accused them of “betraying the motherland.”

Efforts by journalists' professional bodies to highlight the issue of impunity have been attacked by official spokespersons as akin to high treason. State-controlled media, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, Channel ITN and the Lake House publications, have become forums for verbal abuse and vilification of independent journalists and human rights defenders, often with dangerous implications for their physical safety and wellbeing.

Journalists and human rights defenders who have joined national and international platforms calling for justice and accountability for human rights abuses committed during the quarter-century long civil war, have been at particular risk. The large groups of journalists in exile are continually named by official spokespersons, especially over state-owned media, as "anti-national" elements working against their "motherland". 

In a related incident, the Daily Mirror, quoted the Minister of Public Relations, Mervyn Silva, as warning that he would “break the limbs of some journalists who have gone abroad and made various statements against the country, if they dare to set foot in the country.” Silva had previously, in 2007, gone into a state-run television station and assaulted the news director allegedly, because a speech he had made the previous day had not been fully reported by the station.

In March, Sir Lanka’s military authorities told news and media organisations that they would need to obtain prior approval before releasing text or SMS news alerts containing any news about the military or police. The restrictions on reporting on the military were formally lifted in August, 2011.

Journalists and media defenders have been constant targets of violence, threats and propaganda. The censorship of websites, especially those based abroad, has increased since the beginning of 2011.

The Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks (DDoS) have been disrupting web traffic of TamilNet.com. The service provider is struggling to keep the website online. On June 29, Colombo city police raided the offices of two news websites, took staff into custody and impounded their equipment. A fortnight later, the Media Ministry issued a directive reaffirming the registration requirement for news websites and announcing an additional requirement to pay an annual fee for renewal. 

News websites hosting content on Sri Lanka have been subject to arbitrary rule changes and frequent obstruction. In December 2011, the Media Ministry in the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) introduced a rule requiring the registration of all websites hosting news content on the country. An FMM petition challenging this notification under fundamental rights clauses was dismissed by the Supreme Court in May on grounds that the petitioners had no local standing in the matter, since the websites themselves had complied with the registration requirement. 

In June 2012, the government announced a "National Action Plan" (NAP) to give effect to the recommendations of a commission on national reconciliation, appointed at the end of the civil war. Recommendations included steps to prevent attacks on media personnel and institutions, the investigation of such events from the past and deterrent punishment where appropriate. It also urged the restoration of full rights to free movement for media personnel and the enactment of a right to information (RTI) law. The NAP does not set down any time-line for the passage of an RTI law and does not address the climate of impunity for attacks on the media.

Progress in the investigation of newspaper editor Lasantha Wickramatunge's murder in January 2009 and the disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda in January 2010 has been negligible. 

The new owner of the Sunday Leader sacked editor Frederica Jansz just two months after she received death threats from Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The Sunday Leader and its journalists have until now faced regular attack. The newspaper's editor, Lasantha Wickramatunge, was assassinated on his way to work on 8 January 2009. Nobody has ever been prosecuted for the crime. Later, on 19^th October 2012, The Sunday Leader formally apologised to Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa for reporting he had threatened the then editor with death.