On Rajapaksa Practice: If You Cannot Win Them Over, Buy Them!
Tariq A. Al-Maeena
It has been industry practice in many countries for authorities to curry favors from news personalities. Such a practice becomes more evident when their institutions are under fire and they need all the good press they can cultivate. But a few independent news publications and individuals do stand out and do not fall for the financial windfalls doled out in exchange for good print.
One such publication is the Sri Lankan Colombo Telegraph whose motto says, “In journalism truth is a process.” The news website which getsblocked from time to time for its critical and hard-hitting expose of corruption in the Sri Lankan government now highlights how Sri Lankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa is currying favors through a novel scheme of providing key media players and personalities with interest free loans.
Leaked files in possession of the Colombo Telegraph “show that the Rajapaksa regime has granted 547 journalists and media workers a Rupees 1,200,000 ($9,200) of interest free government loans from a state bank to purchase car or van, where the interest will be paid by the Treasury using taxpayer money.”
The Colombo Telegraph charges that “journalists from virtually every mainstream media in the country with the exception of the Sunday Times newspaper have accepted laptops and car loans or both from the Rajapaksa regime.”
Among the news persons were BBC journalists assigned to its Sinhala section. The Colombo Telegraph’s exposures about “the serious conflict of interest issues and violations of standard journalistic ethics” compelled the BBC World Service to rule that “some of its Sinhala Section journalists have breached journalistic ethics and violated the BBC’s code of conduct by applying for interest free vehicle loans offered by the Sri Lankan Government.” The BBC has also stated that the staff in breach of the code would be sent for retraining.
But the BBC journalists who were pulled up apparently did not get the correct message from London headquarters. Those who were granted the loan never withdrew their applications, according to the Colombo Telegraph. “They can go to the recommended bank and get the loan anytime” secretary to the Media Ministry Charitha Herath told the news site.
The news has not gone down well with many Sri Lankans alarmed at the course their current President is charting for their country. Besides charges of systematic genocide that the Tamils have suffered or claim that they continue to suffer, a terrorist group of Buddhists calling themselves the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) have been focusing their crosshairs on the other minorities in the country including Christians and Muslims.
