I Have Difficulty With The Word ‘Impartial’ Says Documentary Maker – Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields

June 5, 2013 

“If you are a journalist and you have discovered a hidden truth that you are determined to expose, then by 

definition you become a campaigner. I have difficulty with the word ‘impartial’. A journalist has an overwhelming duty to be accurate and fair but if you are being neutral in a society that is not equal, you are responsible for helping to maintain that status quo.” says the Documentary-Maker – Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields Callum Macrae.

Callum Macrae

The film-maker Callum Macrae talks with Libby Powell for Chatham House about campaigning journalism and how he plans to follow up his documentary, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields. We publish below the interview in full.

Your work straddles both campaigning and journalism. Is there ever a clash?

If you are a journalist and you have discovered a hidden truth that you are determined to expose, then by definition you become a campaigner. I have difficulty with the word ‘impartial’. A journalist has an overwhelming duty to be accurate and fair but if you are being neutral in a society that is not equal, you are responsible for helping to maintain that status quo.

Your new film on Sri Lanka is No Fire Zone. Why do you call it a ‘film of record’?

We have tried to create a record of what happened at the end of the war in Sri Lanka. It is not some academic account but actually a huge challenge to the attempts by the Sri Lankan government to deny that this happened. We have to be good storytellers but, at the same time, we also consider it evidence. We have a responsibility to make sure it is not in any way misleading because we hope that this film will play a vital role in leading to a process of justice.

Why was this film not made by a Sri Lankan director?

I don’t think there should be advantages to me being an outsider but I think, in this case, perhaps there are. I don’t really like the idea that we’ve been able to get this story on to a national agenda in a way that the Tamil diaspora hasn’t.

The diaspora knew what was going on and were outside Parliament protesting very loudly about the massacres but people weren’t listening. There is a lesson here for all of us: we should listen more.

The fact that I can make this film and show it to the public is a privilege.

Are there more opportunities now for local media to tell their stories?

The beginning of the war in Iraq was the point when we realized things were changing. When I first went to film there, a few weeks after the invasion, we hired cars with TV written on the side. But within a week everyone was taking the signs off the cars or smearing them in mud. The days when a journalist could walk into a war zone with some kind of immunity had just gone.

Over the next two years, it got to the point where we couldn’t even leave the hotels. So local fixers or journalists now had to do the work and I think there is a generation who are being empowered by that. Although their stories may seem less ‘neat’, or slightly coloured by whatever clan or tribe they are in, they are infinitely more accurate and reflective of the situation and probably amount to better journalism.

Were there challenges in using citizen mobile footage in your Sri Lanka work?

There is a great fear of all this mobile footage. If it’s dramatic enough, you’ll run it, but do so with a great distancing. I think we should have more courage. We no longer have a monopoly over the equipment. People are filming and I think that is enormously exciting. But this new media cannot become a substitute for proper investigative journalism or going to those places to find stories that are not being told.

What is your plan for screening No Fire Zone?

I think we have a duty with our film to make people realize the truth about what happened. For the next two years, the Commonwealth is going to be chaired by Sri Lanka, a government accused of some of the worst war crimes this century. This will be catastrophic for the Commonwealth, and disastrous for human rights and the idea of humanitarian law. There is huge value in using film as part of a process of justice. We will hold targeted screenings for Commonwealth diplomats, policymakers and government figures, but also bigger screenings for the public who ultimately call those governments to account.

Your films expose death on a staggering scale – how do you humanize that?

The most difficult and compelling stories are not of those who have died but of those who are left behind. A mass grave is a shocking thing, but the sight of a grieving parent is very difficult to distance yourself from. The most difficult bits to watch in the Sri Lanka film are not the dead, but the survivors.

Meet Callum Macrae: No Fire Zone: In the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka

An Exclusive Preview Of ‘No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields Of Sri Lanka’

Time for U.S. pressure on Sri Lanka

By Karunyan Arulanantham, Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Karunyan Arulanantham is the executive director of the Tamil American Peace Initiative, an organization of Tamil Americans. The views expressed are the writer’s own.

Amid the jungle and sandy beaches of northeast Sri Lanka’s Vanni region lie tragic truths the government has desperately sought to suppress in the four years since its civil war with the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) came to a sudden and gory halt. On the Mullivaikal peninsula, between the Nanthikadal Lagoon and the sea just north of the town of Mullaithivu, the government declared a safe zone, where hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians were trapped as they sought refuge from the bloodshed.

What happened next is almost unimaginable. Seeking to crush the LTTE once and for all, the government proceeded to shell the No Fire Zone and surrounding areas after assuring the world that they would not use heavy weapons. The government declared victory over the LTTE in late May 2009, but in doing so, tens of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians were also killed by government forces.

According to the U.N. Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka, as many as 40,000 civilians may have been killed during the war’s final stages, while “only a proper investigation can lead to the identification of all of the victims and to the formulation of an accurate figure.” Some analysts paint an even starker picture. The Catholic Bishop of Mannar, Joseph Rayappu, has testified that over 140,000 civilians remain unaccounted for since the fall of 2008.

In March, the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a resolution calling for the Sri Lankan government to “conduct an independent and credible investigation into allegations of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law” that occurred during the war’s final stages. But how honest are we being with ourselves when we ask a government that stands chief among the accused to credibly and independently investigate its own wrongdoing?

More from CNN: Tamils want inquiry

In fact, the government continues to promote the very same climate of oppression and indifference that largely fueled Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and led to civil war.

The UNHRC is well aware of this, citing in its report the continuation of “enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, and violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as well as intimidation of and reprisals against human rights defenders, members of civil society and journalists, threats to judicial independence and the rule of law, and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief.”

These alleged transgressions were echoed in last year’s U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which also noted “a lack of accountability for thousands who disappeared in previous years; and widespread impunity for a broad range of human rights abuses, particularly involving police torture, and attacks on media institutions and the judiciary.”

Meanwhile, the Tamils in particular continue to be marginalized, demonized and endangered. They are denied political representation and economic opportunity while enduring the seizure and militarization of their homes and lands. The latest reported land grab by the army is the alleged seizure of 6,381 acres of land belonging to Tamils in just one small northern area of Valikamam, although others have also been claimed.

After the war, the government scrapped the singing of the national anthem in Tamil at official functions, and is quickly and decisively dismantling the cultural identity of the Tamils.

Aware of all this, what is the international community waiting for? A U.N. mechanism that would allow the international community to act decisively and initiate independent investigations and conduct a U.N. supervised referendum on options for peaceful coexistence is long overdue. This is by far the best way to achieve real reconciliation.

The Tamil people deserve to have their rights protected. Yet they now face a systematic attempt by a conquering, vindictive government to erase them from the country’s future and the nation’s collective memory. By definition, you can’t have reconciliation or stability when certain groups are perennially subjugated.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has mounted an expensive public relations strategy that denies and distracts from the real issues the country faces. It promises to take meaningful steps forward, but only makes halfhearted attempts in the hopes that more years will pass, and the international community will forget. But forgetting the past will only ensure it is repeated.

Because the government won’t pursue truth and reconciliation, the international community must. And the United States should take the lead on such an effort. As President Obama said on May 13, 2009 as the war neared its end, “Going forward, Sri Lanka must seek a peace that is secure and lasting, and grounded in respect for all of its citizens.”

Judging by recent history, one thing seems clear: Sri Lanka won’t solve its problems on its own.

Post by:CNN's Jason Miks

Topics: Asia • Conflict

Media, laptops and ethics

 

Editorial-June 4, 2013, 7:55 pm

All of a sudden, the government has evinced a keen interest in media ethics. It is apparently in a mighty hurry to introduce a code of ethics for journalists in keeping with its ‘laptop and stick’ approach to controlling the so-called Fourth Estate. Is it because its laptop method has failed to yield the desired results that it has chosen to use the ‘stick’ of ethics in dealing with the media? Copies of a draft code of ethics formulated by the government have been sent to political parties for their perusal, we are told.

What have politicians got to do with media ethics? We thought it was only servility that they expected of journalists. They are no great lovers of media personnel and there is hardly any political party which is not responsible for crimes against journalists. Hands of some SLFP, UNP and JVP politicians are dripping with journalists’ blood as is public knowledge. Dozens of journalists have died violent deaths at their hands during the past few decades. Other political parties have aided and abetted perpetrators of crimes against the media either as their mouthpieces or as constituents of coalitions led by them.

There is no difference, in our book, between politicians extolling the virtues of ethics and prostitutes pontificating on chastity! It is the rowdies in politics, like cattle rustlers and bootleggers, who need a code of ethics/conduct more than anyone else. Parliamentary standards are deteriorating at an alarming rate; slanging matches and fisticuffs pass for debates. Political legends who adorned the national legislature in days of yore would spin in their graves if they knew what has befallen that institution. The less said about the provincial councils, the better; their members meet only to gormandise at the expense of poor taxpayers! Local council members are busy sexually assaulting women and roughing up the guardians of the law. The worst culprits are the UPFA politicians who have risen above the law by virtue of being at the beck and call of their political masters. In Embilipitiya, a UPFA PS member who set upon two policemen in public had been moving about freely for days with the police looking the other way before giving himself up yesterday. Had a lesser person set upon the police in that manner, he would have been caught in next to no time and made to rue the day he was born.

True, there are bad eggs in every profession and the media has its fair share of them. There are some sick elements in the garb of journalists who need to be dealt with for slander and libel and other unethical and illegal practices. There are remedies available for their victims, though the draconian criminal defamation laws have been done away with. What this country needs urgently is not the formulation of a code of media ethics but the restoration of the rule of law.

If the government is so keen to set ethical standards for journalists by fiat, let the UPFA pundits make the state media adopt their code of ethics first. After it is thus pretested for its efficacy, it may be offered to others if the standards of the state media improve tangibly.

Before laying down ethical guidelines for the media, the government ought to bring to justice those who have assaulted and killed journalists and carried out arson attacks on newspaper offices and TV stations. None of the investigations into such unfortunate incidents have been concluded and the perpetrators are still at large with the government trotting out lame excuses.

Sri Lankan defence secretary backs chauvinist campaign against provincial election

By Wasantha Rupasinghe and K. Ratnayake 
4 June 2013

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, has publicly opposed the election planned for the northern provincial council, highlighting the dilemma confronting the government.

After dragging his feet for years, President Mahinda Rajapakse, under pressure from India and Western powers including the US, promised to hold the election in September. At the same time, his government rests on the military and Sinhala chauvinist forces deeply opposed to any, even minor concessions, to the Tamil elites.

In an interview in the Island on May 23, Gotabhaya Rajapakse warned the government of “dire consequences” if the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won the provincial council election. This would lead, he claimed, to the establishment of a separate Tamil state of Eelam.

The defence secretary’s comments are a flagrant attempt to whip up communal antagonisms in order to justify the continued de-facto military occupation and rule over the Northern Province since the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009.

The TNA, which functioned as the LTTE’s mouthpiece during the island’s protracted civil war, dropped its call for a separate state and instead is seeking a power-sharing arrangement based on a limited devolution of powers.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the president’s brother, is an unelected official—the top defence ministry bureaucrat—and not formally part of the government. His open intervention into politics, directly contradicting the government’s spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, speaks volumes for the powerful role of the military in the island’s political life.

In his cabinet press briefing on May 23, Yapa announced that the government had decided to hold the northern provincial council election, in accordance with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. His comments followed concerns raised by Indian external affairs minister Salman Khurshid over calls for changes to the 13th amendment, under which the provincial councils were formed.

Two Sinhala chauvinist parties in the ruling coalition have been campaigning against the 13th amendment. The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) demands the abolition of the provincial council system, while the National Freedom Front (NFF) wants the removal of police and land powers from provincial councils. The opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), another Sinhala extremist party, is also calling for provincial councils to be eliminated.

These political forces bitterly opposed the 13th amendment when it was implemented as part of Indo-Lanka Accord reached between New Delhi and Colombo in July 1987. The Accord’s purpose was to disarm the LTTE, impose an Indian peace-keeping force in the North, and devolve limited powers to the Tamil elite in a merged North and East province.

The JVP carried out fascistic attacks on workers, trade unionists and political opponents of its reactionary patriotic campaign, including on the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), the forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP). The RCL was the only party to oppose the Accord not from the standpoint of the unity of the Sri Lanka capitalist state, but on the internationalist and socialist basis of unifying Sinhala and Tamil workers against the machinations of Colombo and New Delhi to prop up bourgeois rule on the island.

The north-east provincial council was established in 1988 but was quickly dissolved after the Accord collapsed and the war resumed. The JVP and other Sinhala extremists never accepted the 13th amendment. On the basis of a case filed by the JVP, the Supreme Court issued what was a political ruling, de-merging the North and East provinces.

Since the LTTE’s defeat, India and the Western powers, each for their own purposes, have promoted the election of a northern provincial council under the 13th amendment as a “political solution” to the war. India is falsely presenting itself as a defender of Tamil rights in order to deflect ongoing anger in its southern state of Tamil Nadu over the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The US is exploiting the issue to pressure President Rajapakse to end his close relations with China.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse, however, is openly contemptuous of bowing to this pressure. In an interview with the Tamil-language Sudar Oli on May 26, he was asked whether his opposition to the provincial devolution of power would anger India. “Just because India or some other country will get angry, we cannot stop doing what is good for our country,” he declared.

Arguing for no dilution of the government’s autocratic powers, the defence secretary opposed those “forces trying to weaken Lanka’s Central Executive by divesting it of the powers of land and the police; demanding independent commissions to make official appointments; and promoting an independent judiciary.”

In line with the government’s propaganda, Gotabhaya Rajapakse again claimed that Sri Lanka was facing an international conspiracy, saying “powerful external elements are trying to undermine peace and stability here through local pawns.” He insisted that “the positioning of armed forces shouldn’t be a political issue or a topic for discussions with any external players.”

Neither President Rajapakse nor any other government leader has said anything about the defence secretary’s remarks, showing there is no fundamental disagreement with him.

The government is manoeuvring. It is preparing to hold the provincial election knowing there is only a remote possibility that its allies will win, given the widespread hostility to the continued military occupation and anti-Tamil discrimination and repression. A voter registration bill is being drawn up that will allow votes from people who fled the North years or decades ago. Undoubtedly, the ruling parties are also preparing vote rigging and intimidation in the event of an election.

At the same time, the Sinhala chauvinist campaign against the election, with which the government obviously sympathises, may provide the pretext to delay or call off the poll. The defence secretary’s statements have emboldened communal extremists. The JHU announced last week that it would introduce a constitutional change to abolish the 13th Amendment. A new chauvinist organisation, Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force), has also initiated a virulent campaign, saying it will not allow the northern provincial election to take place.

The defence secretary’s political intervention has broader implications, however. His insistence that the military occupation of the North remain in force and his defence of the government’s centralised and autocratic powers are a warning to the working class. The police-state measures developed during the island’s 30-year civil war are being strengthened in order to suppress the inevitable struggles of workers and youth that will erupt against the Rajapakse government’s imposition of harsh austerity measures.

Exposed: De Facto CJ Advises President To Amend 13A

June 5, 2013

The Colombo Telegraph learns that 3rd June 2013, evening, De facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris met the President privately for 45 minutes. After the discussion, the President met a group of confidants prior to meeting the party leaders of the UPFA at 7.30 pm.

Mohan Pieris

At the party leaders meeting on 5th June,  thePresident announced that a Cabinet paper would be submitted on the next Cabinet meeting fixed for the 6th June to amend the constitution to change two provisions. He briefly explained the intended amendments:

a. Taking away the provisions authorizing  two Provincial Councils to merge.

b. Changing Articles 154G and 154H so that the Parliament will be able to pass any law inconsistent with the Schedules to the 13th Amendment, provided  the majority of the Provincial Councils give their assent.

The Cabinet paper and the draft constitutional amendment has now been finalised.

This urgent decision was taken and announced in the absence of the Rauf Hakeem the Leader of the SLMC and the Minister Tissa Vitarana of the LSSP, who are presently overseas.

Related posts;

Government Considering Amending The Thirteenth Amendment Before NP Elections

Video: TNA says PSC a ruse to dilute 13th-A TNA spokesman Suresh Premachandran while failing to explain its stance on the proposed Parliament Select Committee on the 13th Amendment, detailed what he thought would be the modus operandi of the government subsequent to the PSC being appointed and its findings made law. Video:  Video by Indika Sri Aravinda “This is the government wanting to satisfy Sinhala extremists who don’t want land and police powers given to the Provincial Council. The one-million signature campain by Wimal Weerawanshe and the private members motions to be brought by the JHU are all government sponsored,” he said. Mr. Premachandran told a media conference today how the 13th Amendment functions but failed to state whether the TNA was for or against the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC). “The Government will introduce legislation which stipulates that the consent of a majority of the PCs was enough instead of the consent by all PCs for parliament to pass a law. This will be done prior to the election. No sooner the elections are held they will use this ruse to ensure that Land and Police Powers are removed from the purview of the Provincil Councils,” he said. Mr. Premachandran said the ‘majoritarian principle’ would augur well for the government and the Sinhalese majority since the other provinces except the Eastern province is governed by the Sinhalese. He said the “Tamil people do not want a highway to Jaffna” and raised security concerns regarding the propsoed highway. “Some 1.1 Billion is to be spent on the highway; we fear that this will be a security threat to India because Chinese personnel under the guise of engineers will be in Jaffna. This will be a threat to India,” he said He further said that  the North cormpises of 87,000 war widows and disabled persons whose welfare the government needs to look into. “ they need a livelihood and that’s what needs attention. Not in the building of a highway. The A9 is more than enough for the people in Jaffna who have many other burning issues other than the proposed highway” he said, Several attempts to contact TNA MP M.A Sumanthiran and leader R. Sambanthan to get a clear stance of the TNA regarding the proposed PSC failed. ( Hafeel Farisz)

Editorial - Power-drunk politicos are not the best candidates TUESDAY, 04 JUNE 2013 Currently, hardly a day passes without any story about a crime or a fraud involving a politician,  particularly a local government member,  being carried in the media.  Obviously almost all these rogue (or allegedly rogue) politicians are attached to the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the ruling party in the Parliament, all Provincial Councils already constituted and almost a large majority of the local government bodies in the country. The accounts of such events that had been carried in the Daily Mirror on two consecutive days would provide a graphic description of this abhorrent trend in the present-  day politics. Two police constables attached to the Bulathsinhala police had been hospitalised after being assaulted by a group led by a UPFA Pradeshiya Sabha member- May 28. A fisticuff between a constable and the Embilipitiya Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman had ended with the constable being admitted to the hospital and his assailant fleeing- May 28. The Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman who was alleged to have assaulted a businessman had been arrested- May 29. Investigations had been commenced to arrest a former UPFA Pradeshiya Sabha member for assaulting four students in Mundalama- May 29. The Mawanella Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman who had been accused of killing a person was kept under Kegalle High Court custody until the end of the hearing of the case for the day- May 29. Many other incidents of assault, robbery, fraud, rape, murder etc. would definitely cross the minds of the readers when we refer to these stories published in two randomly chosen newspapers. The fact that almost all members of local government bodies who are involved in these crimes are affiliated to the ruling coalition does not indicate that only the ruling party members are corrupt or using the muscle power to meet their ends, nor does it mean that the members of the other parties or the members of any party in other higher councils elected by the people are saints. Rather, it points to the level of intoxication of the ruling party members with power even at the lowest level of the people’s representation.    Against this backdrop one would see the proposal put forward by the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) last week to disqualify the local government members who fail to live up to the needs and the aspirations of their voters being appropriate, in spite of its possibility of implementation being extremely remote, in the present political context. However, if such a mechanism could be introduced and implemented confinement of it to the local government level is meaningless as the corruption seems to have invaded from head to toe of the polity.

China biggest lender to govt, India biggest benefactor

Foreign loans, grants committed in 2012:

June 4, 2013

China emerged as the biggest lender to the government of Sri Lanka with loans amounting to US$ 1,056.05 million in 2012 with additional grants amounting to US$ 0.16 million and India became the country’s biggest benefactor with grants amounting to US$ 257.28 million and the third biggest lender with loans amounting to US$ 443.06 million, data released by the Treasury showed.

Japan was the second biggest lender to Sri Lanka in 2012 with US$ 508.74 million and grants amounting to US$ 15.23 million.

With concessionary loans amounting to US$ 324 million, the World Bank came in fourth. It also provided US$ 10.49 million in grants.

The Netherlands came in fifth with loans amounting to US$ 102.50 million and no grants.

The Asian Development Bank was next with US$ 99.68 milllion. Saudi Arabia came in seventh with loans amounting to US$ 60 million.

The US, who sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva provided a US$ 5.10 million grant to the government.

The UK gave loans amounting to US$ 44.14 million.

Loans from Germany and France amounted to US$ 34.42 million and 28.29 million respectively with Germany throwing in a grant of US$ 5.27 million.

"Although the total commitments have slightly declined in 2011 in all types of financing compared with 2010 as commitments for financing some key development projects were made in 2010, they improved again in 2012. The total value of the foreign financing commitment made by development partners and lending agencies in 2012 was US$ 3,152 million of which project loans accounted for US$ 2,789 million and grant assistance accounted for US$ 363 million," the Treasury said in its latest annual report released last Monday.

"Out of the total commitments during 2012, 33 percent was made by China while another 22 percent was from India, 17 percent from Japan, 11 percent from the World Bank, 3 percent each from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Netherlands while the remaining 14 percent of the total commitments was received from other development partners and lending agencies," it said.

"The amount of concessionary loans in the annual loan portfolio has declined gradually from US$ 2,615 million in 2006 to US$ 1,475 million in 2012 while non-concessional financing has increased from US$ 260 million to US$ 1,677 million during the same period.

"Of the total foreign financing commitments in 2012, 71 percent amounting to US$ 2,226 million was earmarked for development of economic infrastructure mainly ports & shipping (26 percent), roads and bridges (22 percent), power & energy (11 percent) and air transport (11 percent).

"The external debt as at the end of 2012 is US$ 20.3 billion, an increase of about 10 percent over the last 10 years period. The external debt portfolio consists of US$ 13.6 billion (68 percent) as concessional loans, while the remaining US$ 6.7 billion (32 percent) is non-concessional loans including commercial loans," the Treasury said.

"The average interest rate of foreign currency denominated debt excluding Sri Lanka Development Bonds (SLDBs) increased to 3 percent in 2012 in comparison with 2.2 percent in 2011. An increase in loan flotation charges of major development projects funded by bilateral development partners and slight increase of LIBOR rates compared to 2011 are also contributed the increase in average interest rate on foreign loans.

"Out of the total outstanding foreign debt of US$ 20.3 billion, 3 percent will mature during the next three years, and 1 percent in next 3-5 years. About 26 percent will mature during the next ten year period from 2013 to 2022 and another 20 percent will mature during subsequent five year period commencing 2023. The remaining 52 percent will mature after fifteen years."

Proposed Code of Ethics by GoSL Heralds the Death Knell of Media Freedom in Sri Lanka

Proposed Code of Ethics by GoSL Heralds the Death Knell of Media Freedom in Sri Lanka

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

The proposed set of media ethics by the Government of Sri Lanka bans reporting on many a important issues, and leaves room for wide interpretations on such prohibitions.  The full text of the code of ethics proposed by the  media ministry is follows: 

Ministry of Mass Media and Information
Code of Media Ethics
Preamble
All Electronic and Print media institutions including Websites and journalists shall adhere to this code of Media Ethics which aims to ensure that the Electronic and Print media and Websites in Sri Lanka are free and responsible and sensitive to the needs and expectations of the receivers of the message it sends out whilst maintaining the highest standards of journalism.

Those standards require Electronic and Print media and Websites to strive for accuracy and professional integrity, and to uphold the best traditions of investigative journalism in the public interest, unfettered by distorting commercialism or by improper pressure or by narrow self-interests which are against the bare norms of media freedom. Electronic and Print media and publications m Websites and journalists, while free to hold and express their own strong opinions, should give due consideration to the views of others and endeavour to reflect social responsibility.

This code protects both the rights of the individual and upholds the public’s right to know. It should be honoured to the letter as well as in the spirit - neither interpreted so narrowly as to compromise its commitment to respect the rights of the individual nor so broadly as to prevent publication in the public interest.

Proposed Code of Ethics by GoSL Heralds the Death Knell of Media Freedom in Sri Lanka by nelvely

Its Time UNP Takes To Serious Politics In Constitution Drafting

By Kusal Perera -June 5, 2013 

Kusal Perera

The UNP as the main opposition in parliament for almost 19 years for now, except for the 02 plus years when Wickramasinghe was Prime Minister during 2001 December to 2004 April,  slid into more and more factionalism in the party, over electoral defeats. With in-fighting done outside the party, the UNP lost its public image and credibility too. Faced with frustrated revolts, Wickramasinghe used the party constitution to impose heavy strictures on internal party democracy at every turn and came out as an unquestionable, authoritarian leader for 06 years to come.

Its Time UNP Takes to Serious Politics in Constitution Drafting by nelvely

Eknaligoda is in France with his wife – Arundika Fernando

UPFA MP for the Puttalam District, Arundika Fernando stated in parliament that missing journalist Pradeep Eknaligoda was currently living with his wife in France.
Responding to the opposition MPs who questioned the government regarding the media and Eknaligoda the UPFA MP stated that the Lankans in France were also aware that Eknaligoda was living there.
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End of Vanni war highest cancer patients reported in Northern SriLanka

[ Wednesday, 05 June 2013, 02:52.27 PM GMT +05:30 ]

Since end of the Vanni war highest number of cancer patients identified in the Killinochchie, Mullaitivu districts, Jaffna Teaching hospital sources said.

According to the medical researchers people were affected from radiations of chemical explosives  and the modern weapons used in the final perhaps of war. Especially youths age between 18 years have face threats of cancer disease. Hospital sources further said smoking  habit and heroin usage would cause cancer disease among youths.

Kotelawala’s Colombo land seized on SC order

June 5, 2013, 

By Hemantha Randunu and Shamindra Ferdinando

A special team tasked with tracking down property belonging to Golden Key Company (GKC) director Mrs S. P. C. Kotelawala has acquired a land valued at Rs. 500 mn, situated at Fonseka Road, Colombo 04.

Acquiring of the land was carried out on a directive given by Supreme Court.

Authoritative sources told The Island that parallel to the revival of the management of the GKC, a separate operation had been launched to swiftly identify personal assets including shares belonging to prominent GKC officials, as they have violated bail conditions as per Supreme Court and High Court Orders relevant to them.

Sources said that personal assets of J. L. B. Kotelawala, Mrs S. P. C. Kotelawala, S. K. M. Perera, J. L N.Fernando, D. G. S. P. Sumanasekera, A. D. Jegasothy, Mrs P. K. Karunanayake, S. T. Karunaratne and W. G. B. M. Ranaweera would be taken over to pay GKC depositors.

Sources said that targeted assets included both moveable and immovable properties the aforesaid persons had alienated, sold, transferred or gifted on or after June 30, 2008. The GSK collapsed six months later.

Having informed the Supreme Court, the special team would take steps to transfer seized property to GKC for appropriate action, sources said.

The team is headed by a DIG appointed by IGP N K. Illangakoon, in consultation with Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, two senior Central bank officials, nominated by Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, a military intelligence officer, a senior State Counsel and a senior officer from the Urban Development Authority.

The Island learns that the GKC would have to meet the operational costs of the ongoing hunt for property belonging to ex-directors.

Chief suspect in Rs 10M robbery arrested

By Ananda Weerasooriya-2013-06-05 

The chief suspect involved in the robbery of Rs 10 million from a businessman in front of Nawaloka Hospital last February has been arrested at the Bandaranayake International Airport in Katunayake today.

 

On 12 February, some persons impersonating officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) abducted a person dealing in foreign currency, along with his driver, in their vehicle and robbed the said sum of money that was in his possession, in front of Nawaloka Hospital car park at Sir James Peiris Mawatha, Colombo 2.

The suspect was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division after arriving in the country from abroad.

The suspect has been held by the Crimes Division for interrogations on detention orders.

Meanwhile, six suspects among 8 involved in the robbery were identified during an identification parade at the Fort Magistrate’s Court on 30 May. (Ceylon Today Online)

Two businessmen who gave Rs. 50 and 30 lakhs to DIG Vaas Gunawardena for contract killings in custody
(Lanka-e-News -04.June.2013,10.30PM) Two millionaires who were taken into custody by the CID have revealed more information about DIG Vaas Gunawardena who after collecting many millions of rupees does abductions and killings on contracts. The two businessmen had been arrested on the 2nd. One of the millionaire businessmen is Krishantha Wejeraj Koralage a casino owner to whom the Government has given approval for the sea plane project. 

This casino millionaire has given Rs. 5 million to Vaas Gunawardena to abduct and kill a Sinhala businessman who is angry with the casino millionaire. This casino millionaire businessman had made a confession that he indeed gave Rs. 5 milllion to Vaas Gunawardena.

The other millionaire businessman who had been taken into custody is a Muslim whose name is Mohomed Fowradeen. The latter is the one who gave the contract to Vaas Gunawardena to abduct Bambalapitiya Shyam and murder him. Vaas Gunawardena had collected Rs. 3 million from this businessman Fowradeen to carry out the contract killing. Fowradeen had made a confession that he paid Rs. 3 million to the DIG in respect of that contract.

The two underworld criminals who Vaas Gunawardena employed to do these killings were arrested previously. To facilitate this contract killing , some police officers who are very close to him had also been supported to the underworld criminals . Although the names of these police officers had been revealed by the two underworld criminals , they have still not been arrested. This group of police officers are working under Vaas Gunawardena.

As is always the case with the Medamulana lawless regime, this DIG is still enjoying immunity from the law enforcement process. He is Scott free even after all these glaring evidence arrayed against him. While all these facts are being exposed , senior DIG Anura Senanayake has turned dumb drinking bitter concoctions. The investigations that were to be conducted by the CCD has been transferred to the CID. It is ASP Shani Abeysekera who is in charge of the investigation at the CID. Nine other officers have been appointed along with him .