Saturday, July 14, 2012

Karu urges condemnation of defence secretary remarks
Sunday, 15 July 2012

UNP MP Karu Jayasuriya has called upon media rights group in Sri Lanka and abroad to unite in condemning certain remarks attributed to the Defence Secretary.

Mr. Jayasuriya says in a statement, “It is because the right for journalists to express their views without fear, harassment, intimidation and death threats has to be ensured. Otherwise the semblance of what now remains as media freedom will soon fall prey to fear and intimidation.”

“This is when an official tasked to protect citizens including journalists says he does not “care about Courts” and warns an Editor that “people will kill” her. In no civilized, democratic countries are such abhorrent statements made.”

Given below is the text of the statement:

Statement by Hon. Karu Jayasuriya M.P-12th July 2012

The Sunday Leader newspaper has reported in their latest edition that Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, has abused their Editor Ms Frederica Jansz in obscene language, threatened and intimidated her.

He is quoted, among others, as having told her “You are shit, shit journalist. A f……g shit. A pig who eats shit….. I will put you in jail… People will kill you. People hate you…… They will kill you. I am not afraid of the bloody courts.”

The state run media which names and shames anyone who expresses dissenting views has, however, not reacted with lightning speed to deny the report. Nor has the Ministry of Defence, one that is also equally adept at naming, shaming and even threatening the media. There remains an unpleasant record of their dealings with the media.

One can only conclude therefore that The Sunday Leader account is an accurate report of conversations with Defence Secretary. As the Defence Secretary, this is the first time ever, an official of such high stature has thought it fit to use vulgar, obscene language and intimidate a journalist. This is also the first time an official has spoken publicly so contemptuously about the law courts in this country.

Can the public have confidence to seek any fair play and justice from such a high official, who is behaving like a dictator? His conduct can only bring shame and disrepute to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his entire cabinet. Equally, it can give the country an even poorer image as the Government struggles today with their High Commissioners and Ambassadors abroad to give the Sri Lankan image a clean look.

I do not always agree with the views expressed by The Sunday Leader. I am aware there are journalists including Editors who hold this view. However, The Sunday Leader has its own readership and what it says has to be respected whilst one reserves the right to disagree.

I commend the Editor of The Sunday Leader for informing the people of Sri Lanka and those abroad of the hardships they face only because of the arrogant and irrational conduct of one official, who has usurped more powers than anyone else. This is why the media has been muzzled to the point of self-censorship for fear of harassment, intimidation, abductions and threats of death. Some journalists have even died.

As a citizen standing for justice and fair play I call upon media rights group in Sri Lanka and abroad to unite in condemning the remarks by the Defence Secretary. It is because the right for journalists to express their views without fear, harassment, intimidation and death threats has to be ensured. Otherwise the semblance of what now remains as media freedom will soon fall prey to fear and intimidation. This is when an official tasked to protect citizens including journalists says he does not “care about Courts” and warns an Editor that “people will kill” her. In no civilized, democratic countries are such abhorrent statements made.

Karu Jayasuriya M.P.

‘Mafia’ gamed the stock market

By Namini Wijedasa

From one of the best performing capital markets in the world to one of its worst within two years-what the hell happened to the Colombo Stock Exchange?
It is Newtonian physics, says Thilak Karunarathne, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), dryly: What goes up must come down.
“In 2009, there was euphoria in the country after the war and the market just took off,” Karunarathne explained, seated in his World Trade Centre office with its spectacular view of the ocean. “But some people made use of the opportunity to pump up some of the so-called penny stocks and made a lot of money on that. Actually, it was artificially pushed up.”
“So, when they say that the market went up by so many percentages in 2009 and 2010, and was the world’s best performing market, it isn’t saying very much about it,” he added, “because it wasn’t really (based on) the stocks or counters where the fundamentals were strong. They were mostly pump-and dump-stocks; mostly, not all.”

When the bubble burst
Naturally, the bubble didn’t last long. “I’m surprised it lasted for two-and-a-half years,” Karunarathne said. This view might be strongly contested in some quarters. But it is not much different to the opinion held by Indrani Sugathadasa, Karunarathne’s predecessor at the SEC. The no-nonsense administrator resigned in December after insisting she “will not compromise on my principles”.
“There is a strong, powerful mafia which controls and manipulates the whole market,” Sugathadasa said last week, in an interview with this newspaper. “There is no way for market forces to play without interference. The market can only be resurrected if we let the market forces to play and to let it adjust.”
What the mafia does, she said, is to manipulate the prices. “It was obvious, it was proved and SEC also had evidence,” she said. “Unfortunately, SEC could not take any action because of certain loopholes in the Act and some other reasons that I can’t explain to you.”
Although she is a retired officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service with 33 years of experience, Sugathadasa did not know much about the stock exchange when she was made SEC chairperson. “I walked into the SEC with only general knowledge of the capital market but I came out with a vast knowledge, not only about the fundamentals and concepts but about market manipulation and insider dealing,” she said.
While these malpractices did contribute towards an erosion of investor confidence, the slide of the Colombo Stock Exchange wasn’t exclusively due to insider trading or manipulation Other factors played their part.

Still too expensive Full Story>>>

RTI: A People’s Govt. Must Enact It

Sunday Times Editorial -July 14, 2012

Sinha Ratnatunga - Editor Sunday Times

It took an Indian Minister to come to Colombo and extol the virtues of a Right to Information (RTI) Law and explain how it has empowered the ordinary citizens of his country.

Ironic as it is, this piece of progressive legislation was first introduced in Sri Lanka even before India did, but it was stillborn. A Freedom of Information Bill was drafted by a committee headed by the then Attorney General with stakeholders involved in the process. The Bill was approved by the Ranil Wickremesinghe cabinet in 2004 but the premature dissolution of Parliament by then President Chandrika Kumaratunga put paid to the efforts. India passed the law a year later, enhancing the spirit of the law by making it a citizen’s ‘Right’, even more than a ‘Freedom’ and called it a Right to Information Law. And we now must countenance an Indian Minister telling us what a good law they have.
Jairam Ramesh, the Indian Minister of Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation, which are major issues in India, told a seminar on poverty alleviation in Colombo on Thursday:

I have the right to watch what I want and express my view, as much as you have the right to respond to my comment. Not sure how much you or others know about this women, but those that know her, know that half of the content is nothing but crap. Unfortunately people tend to buy and fall for this kind of stuff. She did not get approached by NDP to run before. She was not known to the party until her own community people brought her to them and her victory is only because of her own community

Rathika Sitsabaiesan Speech at

FeTNA 2011 by Vakthaa TV

Friday, July 13, 2012

Press Council laws passed – Rs. 0ne lakh to register a website ; Rs.50000/- for renewal

(Lanka-e-News-13.July.2012, 11.30PM) Mass media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella , addressing the media briefing at the Govt. information Dept. yesterday (12) to convey the Cabinet decisions said, the Press Council enactment which had been in existence in the country has been amended and the Cabinet approval has been obtained , whereby websites can again be registered.

Under the new law , it has been decided that all websites that were registered with the Mass media Ministry shall be registered again.

To register a new website , a fee of Rs. One lakh shall be paid, and to renew an already registered website the annual fee is Rs. 50,000/- , based on the Govt. decision. The licenses issued to Broadcasting and television channels have to be renewed annually by payment of a fee.
By this new requirement to renew the licenses annually , it has been made possible for the govt. to keep them under its influence . If they go exceed the Govt.’s control , the permission to grant license for the following year will be stopped. Until now , the renewal of licenses did not apply to print media. Though attempts were made to introduce this fee to the print media , because of the opposition to it, this was stalled .The license renewal had been introduced for websites because the govt. desires to have them under its control and influence unofficially forever.

Sorry to say, the whole Cabinet which raised its hands to pass these new obnoxious laws in parliament are no doubt going to incur the displeasure and wrath of the public sooner or later

Sri Lanka: Tip about a puppy and a plane has political edge for Sunday Leader journalist

Friday July 13, 2012

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's Secretary of Defence, is seen in this file photo. The editor of the country's Sunday Leader newspaper alleges he uttered death threats after being questioned about a plane and a puppy-STR/SRI LANKA/REUTERS

By Rick Westhead Staff Reporter

In Sri Lanka, a country notorious for its lack of press freedom, even a story about a puppy can draw a veiled death threat from the government.

Newspaper journalist Frederica Jansz last week pursued a tip that Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had pulled some strings to help out a family friend.

Gotabaya, the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, allegedly ordered an airplane being used for a July 13 commercial flight from Colombo to Switzerland be changed from an Airbus A-340 to a smaller A-330.

The boyfriend of Gotabaya’s niece, who is a pilot, was not qualified to fly the larger A-340, and the change would have meant 56 passengers would be told to rebook their travel, Jansz was told by an unnamed source.

She was also told Gotabaya was planning to bring back a dog from Switzerland when the flight returned to Sri Lanka on July 16.

Jansz called Gotabaya Rajapaksa for comment.

“He went crazy,” said Jansz, 44, the editor-in-chief of Sri Lanka’s Sunday Leader newspaper.

Gotabaya told Jansz he would sue if she wrote “any bloody word about this.” He also said he wasn’t “afraid of the bloody courts.”

Yet a phone call from the newspaper (the Sunday Leader is Sri Lanka’s third largest weekly with a circulation of 48,000) may have prompted Gotabaya to change his mind.

A source phoned Jansz and said the tentative changes to the original flight plan had been cancelled.

“I called Gotabaya back to tell him we weren’t running a story, but that it was not because of his barrage of insults,” Jansz said in an interview.

Gotabaya responded by telling Jansz that most Sir Lankans hate the Sunday Leader, which has made a name for itself with hard-edged investigative reporting.

“You come for a function where I am and I will tell people this is the editor of The Sunday Leader and 90 per cent there will show that they hate you,” he said. “People will kill you. People hate you. They will kill you.”

Jansz asked the defence secretary if she would be killed on his orders.

“What?” Gotabaya said. “No. Not mine. But they will kill you, you dirty f------ s--- journalist.”

In both conversations with Jansz, Gotabaya’s comments were laced with profanities.

Jansz, who said she considered Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s diatribe a legitimate threat, said she recorded the phone conversation and has given a copy to her newspaper’s lawyers. She hasn’t posted the audiotape publicly.

The venom-laced diatribe would be disturbing enough in any country.

But in Sri Lanka, it’s difficult to underscore the fear that already percolates through the country’s media.

Reporters Without Borders, the international press advocacy group, says Sri Lanka is No. 163 in its 2011-12 ranking of press freedom in 179 countries, behind Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Iraq.

“Of the world’s democratically elected governments, Sri Lanka’s is the one that respects press freedom least,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Dozens of journalists and press freedom activists, including the most militant ones, have been forced to flee the country, some of them after being arrested and tortured.”

Reporters Without Borders said three journalists are missing. In March, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Sri Lankan government to stop intimidating reporters who supported the adoption of a recent United Nations Human Rights Council resolution calling for an investigation into alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during Sri Lanka’s war with Tamil separatists.

“Minister of Public Relations Mervyn Silva warned that he will 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,” the pro-government Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

Jansz’s predecessor as editor, Lasantha Wikrematunge, was killed on his way to work in 2009 by eight men riding four motorcycles during morning rush hour on a busy Colombo road, not far from a military checkpoint.

Wickrematunge’s killing was reported around the world, particularly after his family released a letter titled “And Then They Came for Me,” that he’d written predicting the president would order his death.

In that letter, Wickrematunge wrote: “Murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty . . . When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me . . . As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker.

“I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.”

Before his murder, Wickrematunge and his wife were in their car when it was attacked by a group of masked men wielding baseball bats spiked with nails. On two other occasions, the paper’s printing presses were burned.

Two weeks after Wickrematunge’s murder, attackers on motorbikes repeatedly stabbed a Sri Lankan newspaper editor and his wife as they drove to work. Neither received fatal injuries. Only two days before Wickrematunge’s death, the country’s largest private television station, MBC/MTV Networks, was attacked by 15 masked assailants armed with grenades.

“Of course I’m afraid,” Jansz said. “There’s not been one single word about this in the press in Sri Lanka. Not even the editors’ guild will say anything about it. That tells you how fearful people here are.”

Jansz, who joined the Sunday Leader in 1994 after a career as a television journalist, said she’s not bothering to change her route to work or other daily routines.

“It wouldn’t make a difference,” she said. “If Gotabaya wants to find me and eliminate me he will.”

A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan High Commission in Ottawa declined to comment.

Will 'The Newsroom' Examine Sri Lanka?

Warning: article contains Extremely Graphic images!

A new television program on cable titled 'The Newsroom' involves a critical review of past news events and it merges these realities into a weekly series that causes the viewer to believe there is a ray of hope in the TV broadcast world, and that Edward R. Murrow himself could potentially be reincarnated to lead us all to a new, truthful and uncompromising way.

I wonder if the Genocide of Sri Lanka will become a focus of one of their programs, it would be the best thing they could do to educate Americans about what they missed and why. This idea came up several times at FeTNA and I was happily surprised that many people there were also familiar with this new program.

HBO states this about the program by Aaron Sorkin, creator of 'West Wing':

^[5]

The Tamil community greatly appreciates the interest our group has shown their cause and the great hope is that other media begins to look at this event and help direct attention toward some of the worst crimes against humanity in recorded history.

References:

^[1] Sri Lanka: Genocide of the Tamil minority

^[2] Pondicherry - Wikipedia

^[3] Tamil Nadu - Wikipedia

^[4] Tamil Eelam - Wikipedia

^[5] HBO The Newsroom

^[6] First they came... - Wikipedia

Unemployed graduates protest in Jaffna, UPFA dominates public sector employment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 July 2012, 18:29 GMT]
SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Colombo government is widely blamed for handling new and temporary appointments in the Northern province for electoral political purposes. Recent temporary appointments have been provided with the condition that the employees should extend support the UPFA government in the provincial elections, unemployed graduates demanding justice said. On Thursday, a section of unemployed graduates, who have been sidelined in such appointments, demonstrated in front of the District Secretariat in Jaffna amidst harassment from the SL military intelligence and police

commandos.

Sri Lankan riot control police commandos were deployed at the site and the SL police and the SL military intelligence threatened the demonstrators to cancel their protest. However, the unemployed graduates who began their protest at 8:30 a.m. continued the demonstration till 12:30 p.m.

Colombo has given temporary employments to a section of unemployed graduates for 6 months both in North and East. Most of the newly appointed graduates in the government sector have been asked to work with collecting statistics without any permanent assurance on employment on a 10,000 rupee salary per person. EPDP and UPFA politicians have decided the candidates for such appointments.

When the protestors attempted to hand over an appeal to the SL Governor of North, Maj Gen (retd) GA Chandrasiri, the officials at his secretariat declined to allow the protestors to meet the colonial SL governor.

TNA parliamentarian E. Saravanapavan visited the protesting graduates and discussed legal ways to challenge the injustice in the appointments.

Meanwhile, informed civil sources in Jaffna said that the SL minister and EPDP paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda has been competing with SLFP's Jaffna District Organiser R. Angayan to win permanent appointments to those who have been working with them.

Another minister in Mahinda Rajapksa's cabinet, Rishard Badurdeen from Mannaar, has been dominating the agenda of government sector appointments in Mannaar, Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa districts to those who have been supporting him.

Only around 500 of the temporarily employed would be given permanent employment in the first step and the politicians of SLFP and EPDP in the UPFA alliance have been influencing the public administration ministry to provide the permanent employment to their supporters. Following the competing among the UPFA personalities, the ministry in Colombo has been instructed by the Rajapaksa administration to share the appointments among the supporters of the three competing personalities in the Northern Province, the sources further said.

More than 3,000 unemployed graduates have been demanding employment in Jaffna and Vanni alone throughout the last 6 years.

TNA says Gota should resign

The Tamil National Alliance has called for the resignation of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa for using foul language and threatening The Sunday Leader Editor Frederica Jansz.

TNA MP M.A Sumanthiran, addressing an event in Kandy last evening (Wednesday) said that the country is ashamed at the language used by the Defence Secretary.

The TNA MP called on the nation to put pressure on the government to remove him from his post. (See video below)

Gota Went Berserk Because Of Madini

By Colombo Telegraph -July 13, 2012

“Of course Rajapaksas think the country is their fiefdom, but this dog issue was entirely a family matter, Gota got angry with Frederica Jansz because of his niece Madini Chandradasa” a source close to Rajapksa family told Colombo Telegraph. The source who wants to stay anonymous said when Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was criticized by a senior female member of the family last Tuesday for making bad name for the regime Gotabhaya confronted saying “ so, do you want expose to Madini”

Madini Chandradasa

When Frederica Jansz asked; “We were told that Capt. Praveen Wijesinghe has personally offered to fly to Zurich to bring this dog for you?” Gotabhaya did not declare the relationship but angrily replied; ”Yes. So what? He is my friend – I have friends at SriLankan former Air Force officers who will do me favours – What is wrong with that?”

Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa went berserk when contacted by The Sunday Leader to clarify and find out if he was aware that the management at Sri Lankan Airlines had taken a decision to change a wide bodied A340 scheduled to fly to Zurich on Friday July 13, to a smaller A330. The change was to be made so that a SriLankan Airline pilot, who is dating a niece of President Mahinda Rajapaksa could personally fly the aircraft that would carry a ‘puppy dog’ for Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Zurich.

The Sunday Leader was told by senior airline pilots that 56 passengers would have had to be off-loaded if the aircraft was changed. The pilot concerned is Capt. Praveen Wijesinghe who currently is dating Flight Officer Madini Chandradasa, the niece of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. When asked, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, while denying that he had any knowledge that CEO Kapila Chandrasena had ordered the change of aircraft from an A340 to an A330 as Capt. Wijesinghe was not qualified to fly the bigger aircraft, admitted that Capt. Wijesinghe would indeed be ‘passengering’ on one sector so he could bring down the dog for his wife. “Yes they are bringing a puppy – it is for my wife. There is nothing wrong with that. I have every right to bring not just a dog but an elephant on SriLankan if I so wish – I am paying for the cargo. I have every right to bring anything I want. This is not the first time – before this also they brought a dog for me…what is wrong – I am paying for the cargo I have every right,” Rajapaksa said.

When it was pointed out that bringing the dog was not the issue – but a loss of revenue for the airline as an entire aircraft was to be replaced with a smaller bodied plane – resulting in the loss of 56 passengers, Rajapaksa turned abusive.
Using foul language he screamed, “If you write one bloody word I will sue the writer and your newspaper – which I have already done - I am not afraid of the bloody courts – I will sue you and shut down your f……. newspaper.” (click here for full conversation)

INTERVIEW WITH EDITOR WHO WAS THREATENED BY DEFENCE SECRETARY

PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY 12 JULY 2012.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the threats and insults that defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president’s brother, made against Sunday Leader editor Frederica Jansz during a phone interview on 9 July.

Interview with editor who was threatened by defence secretary

“We call on defence secretary Rajapaksa to stop threatening journalists who are doing their job,” Reporters Without Borders said. “In many countries, a government official would have to resign for making such comments and would probably be subject to a criminal prosecution. The justice system cannot turn a blind eye when a secretary openly makes such grave threats.

“As our interview with Jansz (below) indicates, recent developments and statements by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and other officials show Sri Lanka moving steadily away from the rule of law and its leaders becoming more and more intolerant towards the media. We urge the international community to firmly condemn these verbal attacks on journalists and to put pressure on the government to ensure that they do not go unpunished. Otherwise, self-censorship will continue to increase and journalists who do not toe the line will continue to be exposed to physical reprisals.”

During the 9 July phone interview, the defence secretary reportedly called Jansz a “pig” and said “people will kill you.” He then denied threatenig her.

GR: People will kill you!!! People hate you!!! They will kill you!!! FJ: On your directive? GR: What?? No. Not mine. But they will kill you – you dirty f…..g shit journalist.

Jansz has been threatened several times in the past, above all in November 2009, when she gave Reporters Without Borders an interview about the media self-censorship that is widespread in Sri Lanka. Her predecessor as Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematunga, was gunned down in Colombo on 8 January 2009. Those responsible for his murder have never been brought to justice.

This is not the first time that the defence secretary has targeted journalists and openly expressed his hostility to media freedom. He and his brothers, including the president, are on the Reporters Without Borders list of “predators of press freedom.”

Following the latest phone threats, Jansz gave Reporters Without Borders an interview about harassment of the media by the Rajapaksa family-led government. Her replies reflect the deterioration in the media environment since the interview she gave in 2009.

Reporters Without Borders: Why do you think Gotabaya Rajapaksa allows himself to threaten you so openly on the phone ?

Frederica Jansz: Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the second most powerful man in Sri Lanka, next to his brother, the President. He enjoys complete immunity, coupled with the trappings of power inherent to the highest office in this land – that of the president. This is not the first time Rajapaksa has threatened journalists. In fact he has succeeded in cowing Sri Lanka’s journalists into submission. They are terrified of this man and will not dare challenge his abuse of power.

Is there really no accountability for government officials ?

Not where Gotabaya Rajapaksa is concerned. No.

Are the threats to be taken seriously ? And if so, why ?

Yes. It is well within his power to do me harm, whether or not through abuse of the state machinery that lies at his disposal.

Does this mean that the Rajapaksa family can do whatever they want and are subject to no restraints, either within Sri Lanka or from the international community ?

This is Sri Lanka. My predecessor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was murdered in broad daylight on his way to work three and a half years ago. His killers continue to roam free. In January 2010, the cartoon journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing. His whereabouts are still not known. The journalists Poddala Jayantha and Keith Noyahr were beaten and tortured to within an inch of their life. The perpetrators of these dastardly acts remain at large. White van abductions continue unabated. The abductors remain at large. So yes, to answer your question, the Rajapaksa family have proved over and over again that they can do whatever they want. There are no limits to what they can do.

What is working as a journalist like nowadays in Sri Lanka in both the state-run and privately-owned media ?

You can survive as long as you toe the government line. And that is what most media organizations in Sri Lanka have decided to do. Both state and privately-owned media. If you choose to do otherwise the consequences are too big. It’s a price that media bosses don’t want to pay.

What can and should be done as a priority to improve the situation ?

This country is now saddled with an apathetic opposition. Fear has taken a firm hold on civil society. And the media have been effectively cowed into submission. I honestly do not know what can be done in this situation. The fear of getting killed or abducted by a white van now runs too high for people to unite and stand together on issues such as this. And that includes the parliamentarians from the main opposition parties.

What message would you like to send to the United Nations, the EU and international institutions in general ?

Enough is enough. That is the line that they should be taking with this government.

No victory if Sri Lanka cannot win the peace

By Graham Cooke - posted Thursday, 12 July 2012

It is time the Sri Lankan Government came clean over what exactly is happening in the country in the aftermath of the brutal civil war that ended in May 2009.
To the victor the spoils – that is inevitable – and for the Tamils, being on the losing side means a need to recognise their dream of a separate state on Sri Lankan soil will now never be realised, and that their best hope is to engage in reconciliation and partnership with the majority Sinhalese. That is what the Government in Colombo would have us believe is the course being taken, but so much evidence points to the contrary.
It is difficult to get a good handle on exactly what is happening in the areas of the country once under the control of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) because unrestricted access is routinely denied to international journalists and other fact-finders on the grounds of security and safety. The official line is that the process to reintegrate refugees and former low-level Tiger fighters back into the mainstream of civil and political life is proceeding apace and any suggestions to the contrary are simply mischief-making by LTTE elements still active outside the country.

The Sinhalese-dominated Government points to the fact the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) holds seats in Parliament and that Tamils have a place in the political life of the nation. Less publicised are the grievances regularly expressed by TNA Leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan over the treatment of Tamils generally and especially LTTE members who are still in detention.
Speaking in Parliament recently, Sampanthan described the detainees as political prisoners and called for their immediate release. He claimed many had been detained for years without trial and there were cases of prisoners dying in unexplained circumstances.
"If legal proceedings cannot be initiated against those who are kept in detention why not release them under amnesty? Tamil political prisoners are being tortured and this raises serious human rights concerns," Sampanthan told Parliament.
These and other allegations are alarming Sri Lanka's giant neighbour, India, to the point where it recently sent its National Security Adviser, Shivshankar Menon, to Colombo on a fact-finding mission.
Menon's main tasks were to discuss the rehabilitation of Tamils displaced by the war and express concern that their problems were not being sufficiently addressed by the central government. With a large and restive Tamil population within its own borders, what happens in Sri Lanka matters to New Delhi.
During his short visit Menon held talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the three brothers who between them dominate Sri Lankan politics. A meeting with Sampanthan was also squeezed in.

The official communiqué issued later was suitably bland noting that the resettlement of displaced persons, infrastructure development projects in which India has a hand and "areas of common concern" were discussed. What was not mentioned was Menon's insistence the former LTTE areas still effectively under martial law be demilitarized and that free provincial elections be held there.
A more strident version of the talks appeared a few days later in the Sunday Leader. Under the headline 'Indians get tough with Sri Lanka' the newspaper's political correspondent, Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema, said President Rajapaksa could no longer take India's support for granted.
"President Rajapaksa has lost credibility with the Indian Government," Abeywickrema reported, putting this down to "bald-faced lies uttered by Colombo" over supposed progress towards reconciliation.

The correspondent reported India was no longer prepared to accept the Sri Lankan Government's oft-repeated excuse that while it was committed to finding a political settlement it had to be one suited to Sri Lanka as a whole and could not be realised within any set time frame.
After a lengthy period of 'wait and see' following the end of the civil war, the international community is also beginning to run out of patience. India decided to support a United States-sponsored resolution that called for Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. More importantly, the resolution raised the possibility of international intervention in the country, although only with the consent of the Government.
The Rajapaksa brothers reportedly reacted with fury at India's move, but in the long run there is very little they can do. India is a member of the troika, along with Spain and Benin, selected by the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) to undertake universal periodic reviews (UPRs) of Sri Lanka's human rights progress since 2009. Inevitably India sees Sri Lanka as a troublesome irritation within its own sphere of influence and has a special interest in pushing the country to satisfy the international community that it is setting its house in order.

There is a considerable amount needing to be done to achieve this. Nepotism, personified by the Rajapaksa fraternal trio at the top of the ruling pyramid, is rife in the country with Ministers sponsoring the election of sons, daughters and other relatives right through the political system down to provincial assembly level.
There are also periodic crackdowns on dissenting media. Just before Menon's visit security forces raided the offices of the online Sri Lanka Mirror and arrested nine journalists and the tea lady (she was quickly released) on the grounds its website was "continuously publishing false and unethical news about celebrities and popular personalities, misleading international and local communities".
One wonders how many magazine and tabloid journalists would be behind bars in Australia if that law was enforced here, but this bizarre and almost comical incident reveals a growing authoritarian trend within Sri Lanka that no longer automatically tolerates critical debate, whatever its nature.
In more recent times representatives of the Sri Lankan Government around the world have begun to warn of attempts to revive the LTTE among the Tamil diaspora, including in Australia. The prospect is horrifying. The Tigers were, after all, a brutal and ruthless organisation that in their final days herded old men, women and children into the firing line in the cynical hope the resulting massacres would prompt the international community to intervene. A return to that kind of fighting is unthinkable.
The Sri Lankan Government won the war; it would be rightly sentenced to universal condemnation if it allowed the peace to slip away.

News: SRI LANKA: Journalist Frederica Jansz (f) threatened; fears for safety

RAN 32/12 – 12 July 2012

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International joins Article 19 in its concerns for the safety of Sri Lankan journalist Frederica Jansz (f), who received a death threat from Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa during a telephone interview on 5 July 2012. PEN International reiterates its concern for the safety of journalists in Sri Lanka, many of whom are attacked and threatened with apparent impunity for their reporting. It is calling for a full investigation into the threats against Frederica Jansz and for immediate assurances of her safety. PEN reminds the authorities of Sri Lanka’s commitments to the promotion and protection of freedom of expression under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it is a signatory. Please also send your messages of solidarity to Federica Jansz at fjansz@gmail.com
Article 19 gives the following information:

‘Frederica Jansz is the editor of Sri Lankan weekly newspaper, The Sunday Leader, and was conducting a phone interview with Rajapaksa, who is also the brother of the president.

According to The Sunday Leader, Rajapaksa told Jansz during the interview: “You pig that eats shit! You shit shit dirty fucking journalist! […] People will kill you! People hate you! They will kill you!”

The Sunday Leader and its journalists face 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.

Censorship and violence has recently increased against online sources of information and their authors. On 29 June, eight journalists and an assistant were arrested after the Sri Lankan police raided the offices of two news websites,srilankamirror.com and srilankaxnews.com.’

To read Article 19’s press release in full, click here.
MORE INFORMATION
To read the interview in full, click here;
For further background about Gotabaya Rajapakse, click here.

Please send appeals:
Calling for an investigation into the threats made against journalist Federica Jansz, and for her immediate protection;
expressing deep concern about the implications that this threat has on the state of free expression and journalists’ safety in Sri Lanka, where a culture of impunity prevails;
urging the Sri Lankan authorities to make clear its commitments to the promotion and protection of freedom of expression as per its obligations under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Send your appeals to:
His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka
Fax: +94 11 2446657
Email: secretary@presidentsoffice.lk

Mr. Mohan Peiris
Attorney General
Attorney General’s Department,
Colombo 12,
Sri Lanka
Fax: +94 11 2 436421

Messages of solidarity:
Send your messages of solidarity to Federica Jansz at fjansz@gmail.com

***Please contact this office if sending appeals after 30 August 2011***

For further information please contact Cathy McCann at International PEN Writers in Prison Committee, Brownlow House, 50/51 High Holborn, London WC1V 6ER, Tel.+ 44 (0) 20 7405 0338, Fax: +44 (0) 20 7405 0339, email: cathy.mccann@pen-international.org

Former FM Mangala Slams Committee To Protect Journalists Sri Lanka Rep

By Colombo Telegraph -July 13, 2012
Mangala Samaraweera

Former Foreign Minister and UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera has questioned the bona fides of Committee to Protect Journalists Sri Lanka Representative and recently appointed Ceylon Today Editor Hana Ibrahim in an extensive letter of concern to CPJ Asia Pacific Coordinator, Bob Dietz, Colombo Telegraph learns.

The UNP MP criticizes the position adopted byCeylon Today and its sister newspaper Mawbima with regard to what he calls the illegal and political motivated witch-hunt against the Sri Lanka Mirror and Sri Lanka X News websites.

Samaraweera in the open letter to Dietz notes: “It is distressing to note the negative, inflammatory and inaccurate reporting on this issue by the Ceylon Today newspaper, which I have now come to understand is edited by Sri Lanka’s CPJ Country Representative and alleged Media Activist, Hana Ibrahim. Under Ms. Ibrahim’s mentorship, Ceylon Today and its sister newspaper Mawbima have taken a stoic position to defend the Sri Lankan government’s illegal action against the websites, in some cases going beyond the call of duty to report, and descending to actually provoking further action and arrests against journalists at the website and its administrators.”

We reproduce in full MP Samaraweera’s letter to CPJ:

July 10, 2012
Mr. Bob Dietz
Asia Programme Coordinator
Committee to Protect Journalists
New York
Dear Mr. Dietz,

CPJ’s Sri Lanka Representative

On June 29, Sri Lankan law enforcement raided web media offices in Colombo, arresting eight journalists based on a warrant obtained citing offences committed under Section 118 of the Penal Code of Sri Lanka. Section 118 was a section of the Penal Code that was repealed in 2002, relating to criminal defamation. The raid and subsequent arrests of staffers from Sri Lanka Mirror and Sri Lanka X News was, therefore, completely illegal and was little more than a politically motivated witch-hunt to silence some of the last vibrant media outfits remaining in the country.

This harassment meted out to the Sri Lanka Mirror and Sri Lanka X News has been roundly condemned by media rights groups and the international community. The missions of United States,United Kingdom and the European Union – and even the United Nations – last week expressed grave concern about the ongoing campaign to silence and oppress the free press inSri Lanka, which all of these states and international organizations view as serious threats to democracy by the Sri Lankan political leadership.

While it is heartening that most media organizations and activist groups in Sri Lanka have expressed solidarity with the cause of this freedom of expression issue, it is distressing to note the negative, inflammatory and inaccurate reporting on this issue by the Ceylon Today newspaper, which I have now come to understand is edited by Sri Lanka’s CPJ Country Representative and alleged Media Activist, Hana Ibrahim. Under Ms. Ibrahim’s mentorship,Ceylon Today and its sister newspaper Mawbima have taken a stoic position to defend the Sri Lankan government’s illegal action against the websites, in some cases going beyond the call of duty to report, and descending to actually provoking further action and arrests against journalists at the website and its administrators. It has failed to publish a single statement issued by foreign governments and the UN expressing concern over the raid, in its print edition. The US reaction is however published online in brief. (An annexure of links to these stories is provided).

In an editorial on Sunday July 8, 2012 entitled ‘When media freedom is abused’ Ibrahim ironically wrote in reference to the Sri Lanka Mirror Raid:

“Media and human rights groups, which have been extremely critical of government efforts to subjugate the media, in what can only be deemed as a knee-jerk reaction were quick to condemn the raid, deeming it a part of a broader effort to intimidate and harass all critical journalists…….However not all situations can be viewed in such black and white contrasts. For, lost in the blanket vilification of the government action is a simple yet disconcerting reality – the misuse and abuse of media freedom by a significant segment of the online media community, to hurt, vilify and defame others under the guise of unfettered journalism. …Unfortunately this was a responsibility missing in web journalism which equated media freedom to be the right to disseminate barefaced lies, crafty concoctions and fanciful fabrications as credible news, not only vilifying whomever they pleased by also misleading the public into accepting their mistruths and untruths as verified facts.”

The sentiment is ironic, especially as it comes in the wake of a slanderous and defamatory two page editorial published by Ibrahim in the June 24 issue of Ceylon Today blatantly attacking and vilifying former journalists at the newspaper who resigned in protest of the Ceylon Today Management’s arbitrary dismissal of Ibrahim’s predecessor and veteran journalist Lalith Allahakkoon from his position as Editor in Chief over an editorial independence issue. (http://www.ceylontoday.lk/52-8467-news-detail-blowing-the-whistle-in-self-interest.html) Ibrahim’s smear campaign not only endangers these journalists once serving in her editorial, but also makes thinly veiled attempts to make prospective employers wary of recruiting the group that quit Ceylon Today in protest against editorial interference. Ibrahim who profited from Allahakkoon’s unethical and illegal sacking professes to be a media activist, yet hastened to resign from her position as a trustee of the Free Media Movement of Sri Lanka just days after sustained attempts to block the group from issuing a statement condemning the senior editor’s sacking failed. [http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/ceylon-today-threatened-media-rights-groups-and-editor-resigns-from-fmm/]

Mr. Dietz, as a member of the opposition and a former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that sees the present political administration as a serious threat to Sri Lanka’s democracy and freedom of expression, I hold the CPJ and its mission to protect and provide safe haven to endangered journalists in Sri Lankain high regard. I believe that your good offices have ensured that the lives of many Sri Lankan media personnel have been spared and for this, as an opposition that is deeply concerned about the breakdown of democracy in this country, we are most grateful.

It is for precisely these reasons that we view the conduct of your Sri Lanka representative with such concern. The targeted raids on the Sri Lanka Mirror and Sri Lanka X News and the ongoing harassment of journalists attached to these media outfits, if taken to the next level could prove deadly given present trends to suppress the free media in this country. In such an event, Sri Lanka Mirror and Sri Lanka X News Journalists could find themselves in the awkward position of being compelled to seek assistance from your Sri Lanka representative tasked with ensuring safe passage for media personnel who find themselves in danger in the country. How could they in good conscience seek redress from Ms. Ibrahim when she has made it clear in the pages of her newspaper that she not only looks down upon these journalists but even feels the illegal actions of the state are justified? It is appalling that the supposed watcher of attempts to endanger the lives of scribes has descended to the level of not only branding the work of these journalists as “scurrilous and defamatory” but in justifying the government action against these websites, lends credence and legitimacy to the regime’s campaign of media oppression and stifling dissent. If journalists and media outfits must now fear reprisal and attack from its own fraternity and more specifically media activists tasked with ensuring journalists’ safety, what recourse will they have? If this pro-oppression position is Ms. Ibrahim’s own, why does she continue to wear the misleading garb of media activist and campaigner for free expression?

I bring these facts before you in the hope that they will be taken note of, in light of the ever present climate of fear and danger under which Sri Lankan journalists report and bring to bear upon your chosen representative how this style of reportage only serves to further endanger the lives and livelihoods of these scribes.
Sincerely,
Mangala Samaraweera, MP

CC: Reporters Sans Frontiers
Free Media Movement (Sri Lanka)
IFEX
Article 19
Freedom House
The Global Network for a free media
International Federation of Journalists