The Deliberate Deceit Of The Self-Proclaimed “Independent” English Language Media In Sri Lanka
By Emil van der Poorten -October 6, 2013 |
Emil van der Poorten
Another contributor to Colombo Telegraph, Kusal Perera, and I have differed on what we consider to be the “self-censorship” practiced by the Sri Lankan media. I subscribe to the belief that those elements of the media not owned by or absolutely controlled by the government are self-censoring to the point of irrelevance and Kusal interprets the term “self-censorship” differently.
However, I don’t expect that either he or any writer to the media who is not, literally, bought and paid for by the forces that are running this country with the authority of an iron heel coupled with a mailed fist, will (or CAN) dispute what I am about to document and the fact that it is DELIBERATELY misleading journalism, the motive for which should be obvious to anyone of even limited intelligence.
The web edition of the Daily Mirror of Saturday, September 28th has an article titled “UNHR Council divided over SL” which I can only assume appeared in its print edition as well. The link is here for anyone wishing to verify what I have to say in what follows.
That item, running in excess of 1300 words, deliberately sets out to deceive any reader who does not check the basic information provided, particularly those who do not believe that a newspaper owned and controlled by the family of the Leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe, would engage in reporting of a nature so deceitful that it might, arguably, put the government’s own Daily News to shame!
In my last column I referred to the fact that the most recent Columnist of the Year, as selected by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Press Institute had sought asylum, permanent or temporary asylum _-depending on your source of information – “somewhere in North America.” Canada’s most watched TV network, CTV, reported this on the 19th of September and I don’t know whether even the paper for whichMandana now writes by email, The Sunday Leader, has reported what one might consider news of some importance, up to now.
