'Journalists failed to tell the story of war crimes in Sri Lanka'

Frances Harrison is a former BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka and her book "Still Counting the Dead" which tells survivors' stories from the 2009 war will be published in London by Portobello Books in July in e-book form and October in print.
Frances Harrison, former BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka


Today marks three years since the end of the fighting in Sri Lanka. I would like to mourn the dead but still I do not know how many. Estimates range from seven to 147,000. It is a shocking difference.

Every journalist has heard of Srebrenica. But how many have heard of Mullivaikkal where just as many perished?


Frances Harrison

No intrepid journalists smuggled their way into rebel territory as they did in Syria, even though an erratic bus service ran across the frontline until mid January 2009Frances Harriso

How is it possible in this world of satellites, rolling news and internet we have no idea how many human beings really perished, even rounded up to the nearest thousand?

It is because as journalists we have failed to get close to the truth. On one hand the Sri Lankan government says the 2009 war was a magnificent humanitarian rescue operation, while on the other many Tamils say it was a genocide. As reporters it is not enough to quote both extremes without digging a little deeper, but that is what the media reports in 2009 were like, citing army and rebel claims and just adding a proviso that these were unverified because journalists had no access to the war zone.     Full Story>>>