To Kill A Sri Lankan
Dr Jagath Asoka
To kill any Sri Lankan for criticizing Mahinda and Gotabaya is like killing a mocking bird. Have you read Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mocking Bird?
Should we kill our own citizens when they ask for a separate state? Should we kill them when they want to establish socialism or utopian-communism? How about when they criticize Mahinda and Gotabaya for creating a political system that is corrupt; has taken away the freedom of speech of all citizens; has made a mockery of the rule of law; has allowed their goons, thugs, drug dealers, rapists, laptop licking journalists, and murderers to make billions from development projects and casinos? If you are a Buddhist, a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Jew, an atheist, or an agnostic would you kill another person without any compunction? Would you kill a person for criticizing you, if you could get away with it? Would you kill another Sri Lankan for criticizing Rajapaksas, if you were paid to do so? Would you?Criticism is not treason.
If you are a journalist, would you keep prostituting for Rajapaksas, while deceiving the readers and keep throwing your feces at other journalists, because you are paid to do so. If you call yourself a journalist, would your conscience tie your tongue when you see murder, rape, and injustice? Who is prostituting the media freedom?
If you think of Sri Lankans as your own brothers and sisters, how do you feel when you kill your own brothers and sisters? Do you think Cain was right when he killed Abel because God preferred Abel’s gift, not Cain’s? Under what circumstances would you say killing your own brothers and sisters is a good thing? If you are an ardent supporter of Rajapaksas—a Buddhist zealot who firmly believes that Rajapaksas have rescued this country from Tamil terrorists—and if you think Rajapaksas are the guardians of Buddhism in our country, would you achieve nirvana when you kill another Sinhala Buddhist when he or she criticizes your paper lions: Mahinda and Gotabaya? Read More
Prostituting Media Freedom
Malinda Seneviratne
Media freedom, like all freedoms, is not something one can talk about in absolutist language. There are always caveats. There are always conditions. There are lines imposed and there are limits that come from within, the latter kind being two fold, those birthed by fear and those that are spawned by ideological or political preferences.
For all the rhetoric about absolute freedom of expression and objectivity in reportage and comment, the truth is that everyone defines for him/herself an operational comfort zone. There’s a lot of over-focus on pet peeves and a studious look-askance when friend or chosen ideology slips up. Those who disagree are probably blissfully ignorant or consciously deceitful.
That said, there is nothing to say that the freedoms that do exist are adequate or those that don’t are not worth fighting for. In short, things can always be better.
We live in a world that is made of surveillance. This world is people by humans and not gods. As such they are prone to error. Systems may appear robust but there never impregnable. ‘9/11’ showed us that. Wikileaks showed us that. There will always be people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. There have been and will be the likes of Bradley Manning. There will also be a Callum Macrae and Frances Harrison who in interpretive sleight of hand will string together fact and fiction, discolor by editing out context, frill with overindulgence in conjecture and such. Only an informed, alert and intelligent public can sift fact from fiction, weed out ideological and political insert, and get something close to the true picture.
We live in a country that was a veritable media freedom horror story. Those who are old enough or are interested enough about history will know what the 1980s were like. They would know what kind of media culture existed during the Chandrika Kumaratunga regime. Few would not be aware of the constraints inevitably imposed by a war of the kind necessitated by the brand of terrorism unleashed by the LTTE.
These are better times. But times can be infinitely better, this should also be recognized. While facts don’t bear out the horror stories trotted out by those who want easy passage to greener pastures or are experts at manufacturing lie for bucks, it is also true that the post-conflict media culture has been marked subtle forms of control. Read More
