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Asylum seekers 'sent home to jail and beatings'

Reporter: Hayden Cooper-10/06/2013

An Immigration Department insider claims the Federal Government is sending Sri Lankan asylum seekers home to jail and torture under its method of 'enhanced screening'.

Transcript-Video: 

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: There are renewed calls for a bipartisan solution to asylum seeker arrivals after yet another tragedy at sea. Rescue authorities today called off a search for more than 50 people drowned in the latest sinking off Christmas Island. With boat arrivals in record numbers and no sign of a solution, the Government recently adopted a new accelerated screening process to justify sending some asylum applicants home on arrival. More than a thousand Sri Lankans have been repatriated under the so-called enhanced screening regime. But now it's claimed that some of them have been sent back only to face imprisonment and brutal punishment. Hayden Cooper reports.

HAYDEN COOPER, REPORTER: It was a sight that caught the Australian Government by surprise. A boat carrying 66 Sri Lankan asylum seekers sneaking into Geraldton Harbour in WA. A rare successful voyage all the way to the mainland.

?: I think everyone is charged on the way back because leaving the country without a valid visa is illegal in Sri Lanka.

HAYDEN COOPER: Some in the Tamil community say more than two dozen are now incarcerated.

'NATHAN': At the moment, 26 Tamil detainees are there and some have been beaten and they're in different cells. My brother is afraid for his life.

HAYDEN COOPER: The treatment of Tamil inmates by Sri Lankan security forces is very much under question. This man, now also in community detention, says he was tortured and raped in Negombo in 2010, before he fled to Australia. He says it's still unsafe for Tamils who are sent back.

ANONYMOUS MAN: Still people are facing torture, you know, rape, torture and many, many things, you know. Um, that's why the Tamil people leaving from Sri Lanka.

DAVID MANNE: I mean, at the end of the day, this is a very serious matter where many people appear to be being denied due process and are at risk not only of violation of their basic rights, but of serious miscarriages of justice where people could in fact be denied protection here and sent back to the prospect of real dangers such as torture or death.

HAYDEN COOPER: The Department rejects any suggestion that enhanced screening denies asylum seekers the opportunity for protection and the Government doesn't believe that Tamils are still at risk in Sri Lanka.

BOB CARR, FOREIGN MINISTER: Since 2010, there has been no evidence of returnees being discriminated against, or arrested, let alone tortured.

HAYDEN COOPER: Greg Lake, for one, is not convinced. It's one reason he decided to walk away.

GREG LAKE: I looked back on my experience or I was beginning to look back on some of the experiences I'd had and wondering whether or not I was part of the next horrific Australian story that we'll reflect on in 20 or 30 years' time and that we might have another prime ministerial apology on this kind of thing.

LEIGH SALES: Hayden Cooper with that report
.

Freedom of press critical, says internet founder

 

BY EVAN PICKWORTH, 09 JUNE 2013,

Founder of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Picture: www.webfoundation.org

AS THE internet explodes in new markets and across different cultures, the role of a free press and the ability of journalists to sift through masses of new information to find the truth is a very important priority, the founder of the web Sir Tim Berners-Lee, says.

Governments around the world are seeking to gain more control over private information gateways. In South Africa, a controversial secrecy bill has been passed that moves to protect sensitive government information and punish whistleblowers.

Speaking at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Monte Carlo on Friday, Mr Berners-Lee cautioned that citizen’s rights and those of service providers needed to be free from government intervention. One of the major risks was for a corrupt government, or a big brother approach, being given control over the internet, he said.

Mr Berners-Lee said there was still a "long way to go to open up databases." He encouraged journalists to push for data from governments and to report the results of this analysis.

He said the shutdown of the internet by the Mubarak regime in Egypt during the protests there — where social media was used to manage the uprising against the dictatorship and usher in a new system — was a serious wake-up call.

"People were asking, so who can turn off my internet? The internet as a neutral medium is important to democracy," he said.

While only around 25% of the world’s population has access to the web at the moment, the major change will be when different cultures and languages, like those in Africa, are added and when "only" 80% of the world’s population accesses the net, said Mr Berners-Lee.

The internet founder is championing a multi-stakeholder system to control the net, with government as one of the stakeholders. He proposes the system be managed at arm’s length from government.

Mr Berners-Lee expressed his excitement about opportunities for web-based applications that can be used on mobile and other more devices and the use of open web platforms, where the same web technology can be used by different developers.

The journalism of the future "may not look like the journalism of today", he said he, adding that he believed journalists would soon need to filter through more information as more and more information became available to citizens.

"I don’t see very effective systems sorting this out apart from human beings doing the jobs as journalists. There will be some very interesting websites," he said.

The Web Foundation he helped form in 2007 believes that Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives in low- and middle-income countries can have a positive impact on their future socioeconomic and political development. For that, these initiatives should focus on releasing information that matters to improve people’s lives and the society at large, ideally leading to achieve the Open Government paradigm shift where citizens are better informed and more directly involved in political decision-making.

It has already conducted an OGD readiness assessment in two countries — Chile and Ghana — as well as a subsequent implementation of the Ghana Open Data Initiative (Godi).

Mr Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 while working as a software engineer at CERN, the large particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. He built his first computer from a television.

New Research: Men Don’t Mature Until They Hit 43

June 12, 2013 

• Men remain emotionally immature until the age of 43 says new research
• By contrast, women hit emotional maturity at the age of 32 – 11 years earlier
• Eight in 10 women are convinced that men will ‘never’ stop being childish
• Maturity ‘failings’ include finding farts funny and being unable to cook

Read more

TV5MONDE Launches In Sri Lanka On PEO TV

June 12, 2013 

The High Commission of Canada, the Embassy of Switzerland and the Embassy of France in Sri Lanka announce that TV5 Monde, the French-language channel, will be accessible on SLT PEO TV platform to over 76,000 subscribers in the island nation from June 15^th.

‘TV5MONDE Asie’ joins PEO TV’s basic offer on channel 90, giving access to premium French-language content to Sri Lankan viewers for the first time.

PEO TV is the IPTV arm of government-owned Sri Lanka Telecom Plc. and the only IPTV operator in the country. It offers over 80 live channels, time-shifted TV, VOD and interactive services to more than 76,000 subscribers across the country.

TV5MONDE is the world leader in TV entertainment in French, showcasing a selection of the best films and dramas, world news, live sports, lifestyle programming and much more. With a network of 10 premium channels and localized programming serving 236 million homes in 200 territories, TV5MONDE channels is a prime TV destination for the world’s business and cultural elite.

Bradley Manning: Prisoner of Conscience

By Francis A. Boyle-June 05, 2013-

Global Research

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the peoples of the world have witnessed successive governments in the United States that have demonstrated little if any respect for fundamental considerations of international law, human rights, and the United States Constitution itself.  Instead, the world has watched a comprehensive and malicious assault upon the integrity of the international and domestic legal orders by groups of men and women who are thoroughly Machiavellian in their perception of international relations and in their conduct of both foreign affairs and American domestic policy.

Even more seriously, in many instances specific components of the U.S. government’s foreign policies constitute ongoing criminal activity under well recognized principles of both international law and United States domestic law, and in particular the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the Nuremberg Principles, as well as the Pentagon’s own U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 on The Law of Land Warfare (1956), which applies to the President as Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution.

Depending on the substantive issues involved, these international and domestic crimes typically include but are not limited to numerous Nuremberg offences of “crimes against peace.”

Their criminal responsibility also concerns Nuremberg “crimes against humanity” and war crimes as well as grave breaches of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the 1907 Hague Regulations on land warfare.  Furthermore, various officials of the United States government have committed numerous inchoate crimes incidental to these substantive offences that under the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles as well as U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956) are international crimes in their own right: planning and preparation, solicitation, incitement, conspiracy, complicity, attempt, aiding and abetting.

Of course the terrible irony of today’s situation is that over six decades ago at Nuremberg the U.S. government participated in the prosecution, punishment, and execution of Nazi government officials for committing some of the same types of heinous international crimes that these officials of the United States government have inflicted upon people all over the world.  To be sure, I personally oppose the imposition of capital punishment upon any human being for any reason no matter how monstrous their crimes.

According to basic principles of international criminal law set forth in paragraph 501 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10, all high level civilian officials and military officers in the U.S. government who either knew or should have known that soldiers or civilians under their control (such as the C.I.A. or mercenary contractors), committed or were about to commit international crimes and failed to take the measures necessary to stop them, or to punish them, or both, are likewise personally responsible for the commission of international crimes.

This category of officialdom who actually knew or should have known of the commission of these international crimes under their jurisdiction and failed to do anything about them include at the very top of America’s criminal chain-of-command the President, the Vice-President, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, the C.I.A. Director, National Security Advisor and the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff along with the appropriate Regional Commanders-in-Chief, especially for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).  These U.S. government officials and their immediate subordinates are responsible for the commission of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as specified by the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles as well as by U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 of 1956.

One generation ago the peoples of the world asked themselves: Where were the “good” Germans? Well, there were some good Germans. The Lutheran theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the foremost exemplar of someone who led a life of principled opposition to the Nazi-terror state even unto death.

Today the peoples of the world are likewise asking themselves: Where are the “good” Americans?  Well, there are some good Americans. They are getting prosecuted for protesting against and resisting illegal U.S. military interventions and war crimes around the world.  Private Bradley Manning is America’s equivalent to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Vaclav Havel, Andrei Sakharov, Wei Jingsheng, Aung San Suu Kyi, and others. He is the archetypal American Hero whom we should be bringing into our schools and teaching our children to emulate, not those wholesale purveyors of gratuitous violence and bloodshed adulated by the U.S. government, America’s financial power elite, the mainstream corporate news media, and its interlocked entertainment industry.

Today in international legal terms, the United States government itself should now be viewed as constituting an ongoing criminal conspiracy under international criminal law in violation of the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the Nuremberg Principles, because of its formulation and undertaking of serial wars of aggression, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes that are legally akin to those perpetrated by the former Nazi regime in Germany.

As a consequence, American citizens and soldiers such as Bradley Manning possess the basic right under international law and United States domestic law, including the U.S. Constitution, to engage in acts of civil resistance designed to prevent, impede, thwart, or terminate ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by U.S. government officials in their conduct of foreign affairs policies and military operations purported to relate to defense and counter-terrorism.  If not so restrained, the United States government could very well precipitate a Third World War.

Go Topless: Women’s Constitutional Right

What is GoTopless.org?-June 12, 2013
“As long as men are allowed to be topless in public, women should have the same constitutional right. Or else, men should have to wear something to hide their chests” says Rael, founder of GoTopless.org and spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement (rael.org)

The green colored states are those where top freedom is in effect.
The orange colored ones have amibiguous state laws on the matter.
The red colored ones are the ones where the mere showing of the female breast in public is illegal according to state law.

Though the majority of states are top free, some cities in those states have passed (unconstitutional) ordinances that annul the state’s top free statute.

(gotopless.org)

Moira Johnston is an activist who is well known for raising awareness among New Yorkers about the right for women to be topless in public. During her routine walk around Union Square, she explains her past and what she does.

Read More

G8 summit protest: riot police arrest 57 in raid of London HQ

Haroon Siddique-Wednesday 12 June 2013

Hundreds of officers deployed and 57 arrests made as Carnival against Capitalism is staged in London

Link to video: G8 protest: police scuffle with demonstrators in London

Riot police raided the central London HQ of anti-G8 protesters on Tuesday and hundreds of officers were deployed in the capital as protests took place against next week's G8 summit.

Squatters inside the building, a former police station in Beak Street, off Regent Street, accused police of heavy-handed tactics after they were led out by officers who forced their way in after a tense standoff lasting more than three hours.

TV footage showed officers in climbing gear trying to secure the roof, then grabbing a protester who appeared to be trying to jump off the rooftop.

The raid came on the day of the Stop G8 group's Carnival against Capitalism, targeting banks, hedge funds, mining and oil firms in central London as well as Claridge's hotel and Boodle's private club in the runup to the summit in County Fermanagh. The protests were concentrated on Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus. Police said 57 arrests were made in relation to the G8 protests.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said the force obtained a search warrant for the Beak Street property "relating to intelligence that individuals at the address were in possession of weapons and were intent on causing criminal damage and engaging in violent disorder".

A handful of squatters are believed to have arrived on Friday, with many more subsequently joining them.

The Metropolitan police operation to evict squatters from a disused building in Beak Street, Soho, the headquarters of London protests against the G8 summit in Co Fermanagh. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

People ejected from the building said about 200 people had been inside. A banner hung from the building said: "What if we smash the G8?"

More than 100 officers were stationed outside the property from 10am. During the standoff, some protesters, many wearing masks, dangled their legs over a ledge of the building while others popped their heads out of the window, occasionally chanting anti-capitalist slogans and "Fuck the police."

At 1.40pm, police began using chainsaws and crowbars to enter.

Protesters started emerging, most showing little sign of resistance, and were still being brought out 45 minutes later, suggesting officers had faced multiple barriers inside the property.

Police said those who had been in the building were free to leave once they had been searched.

Police did not provide a breakdown of how many of the 32 G8 protestarrests related to the Beak Street raid.

Dozens of the squatters hung around after they were led out, discussing where to go next.

One man, who did not wish to be named, said: "I think it's police brutality, to enter a completely legal squat. They're just trying to stop any protests. It's pretty scary."

He claimed that he saw blood on a police riot shield. One person, who had apparently been removed from the building, was taken away in an ambulance. Witnesses said he was bleeding and was being given oxygen.

A London Ambulance spokesman said: "We treated two patients at the scene of the protests in central London. Both have been taken to hospital with minor injuries."

The leaders of the world's eight wealthiest countries, including Russian president Vladimir Putin and German chancellor Angela Merkel, are due to meet at the luxury Lough Erne resort in Co Fermanagh for the conference on 17-18 June.

Kan now sorry he pushed export of nuclear plant technology

Then Prime Minister Naoto Kan delivers a speech to the public while dealing with the Fukushima nuclear accident on March 15, 2011. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

By ERIKA TOH/ Correspondent-June 06, 2013

SAN DIEGO--If he could turn the clock back, Naoto Kan says he would never have promoted the export of Japanese nuclear plant technology.

Kan, whose tenure as prime minister was defined by his handling of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, professed embarrassment June 4 at having pushed the policy prior to the reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Kan, of the Democratic Party of Japan, made his comments at a gathering organized by a U.S. citizens group. The event was the first time Kan had spoken about the experience to an overseas audience.

"Before March 11, I asked nations to import the technology because I felt nuclear plants were safe," Kan said. "I am now embarrassed for having done so."

As prime minister, Kan was involved in efforts to export nuclear plant technology to India, Turkey and Vietnam.

"Before March 11, I was in favor of the safe usage of nuclear plants, but my thinking has changed 180 degrees after March 11," he said.

The government now led by the Liberal Democratic Party continues to push the export of nuclear plant technology as part of its economic growth strategy.

Kan said regarding that policy, "When we think about the future of those nations (targeted for the exports), the better option would be to introduce renewable energy sources."

Kan also revealed that he had received an invitation to speak in Taiwan where public opinion is split over a nuclear plant now under construction.

By ERIKA TOH/ Correspondent-

• Naoto Kan
• nuclear plant exports
• Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
• United States

Video: BBC World News Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Record And CHOGM

June 11, 2013 

“Impact” presenter Mishal Husain discussed the controversy over the decision to hold the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka. There are on-going concerns about the suitability of Sri Lanka as the venue for the meeting, raised by human rights organisations and the United Nations. Mishal was joined by Senator Hugh Segal, the Canadian government’s special envoy to the Commonwealth and by Lal Wickrematunge, Chairman of “The Sunday Leader” newspaper in Colombo. In the studio was Frances Harrison, author of “Still Counting the Dead”, who is also a former BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka

Canada youth initiate ‘Thazhumpakam’ for genocide awareness

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 June 2013, 23:41 GMT]
”The end of May completes the first stage of a genocide memorial project called ‘Thazhumbakam’ targeted toward civil society in an effort to educate and to raise awareness about the ongoing structural genocide of the Tamil nation,” says Shagana Thangaraj, a coordinator for rights advocacy in the Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance. Thazhumbakam project by the CTYA has started in the form of a traveling mobile art exhibition that has made appearances at remembrance events, University campuses and other high traffic public areas. The collection of artwork by Eezham Tamil artists depicts many of the ground realities faced by the nation of Eezham Tamils subjected to a protracted genocide. 

“By exhibiting paintings, Thazhumbakam has created a way of storytelling…to create a mental image for everyone to understand what is happening and what has happened in the genocide,” Keera Ratnam, an Eezham Tamil artist whose work is displayed in the exhibition told TamilNet.



Welcoming the Thazhumbakam initiative, Eezham Tamil activists who witnessed the phenomenal creative expression achieved by a U.S. based visual artist, Naomi Natale, at the recent "One Million Bones," project in Washington DC, opined that every creative effort by Eezham Tamils seeking to reflect on their genocide should not fail in addressing the International Community of Establishments, who are the architects and ultimate culprits of the Tamil genocide. 

So far, the Thazhumbakam project has been seen at events like genocide remembrance day on May 18th as well as University campuses including York, Ryerson, McMaster and Carleton. 

“When we displayed the paintings in various locations, many non-Tamils were able to relate the paintings to other genocidal events around the world such as the Rwandan genocide and Cambodian genocide,” said Yalini Rajakulasingam, another activist of the Human Rights Advocacy Council in the CTYA canvassing for the Thazhumbakam project. 

Thazhumbakam plans to move into a temporary building location in 2014. 

From the temporary location, research materials, fund-raising programs, exhibit displays and educational programs will be developed, claim the activists of the CTYA, who envisage the establishment of a permanent genocide memorial museum in the Toronto area. 

The primary role of the ‘Thazhumbakam museum’ is to educate and inform the international community about the genocide of Eezham Tamils, the organisers said, adding that this will also be a place for the Tamil diaspora to remember the victims of genocide. 

Eastern university student attacked

[ Tuesday, 11 June 2013, 01:17.36 PM GMT +05:30 ]

Group of unidentified personals have attacked student of the Batticaloa university while at Kalladi area, last night.

Victim identified has Y.Amirdharaj , third year student of Eastern university. He is receiving treatment at the Batticaloa base hospital. Commenting on this alleged attack students went on to say, victim was the chief candidate of students union of the university and this attack carried out due to dispute between students.

13A was forced on country

* Causing disruption to admin process

* PCs a stumbling block to progress

Chaminda Perera

The then government was so much under pressure that it accepted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution without calling for a referendum in the face of a threat of invasion, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga said yesterday.

Weeratunga added that public discussion is brewing on the 13th Amendment and many secrets with regard to the introduction of the Provincial Council system are coming to light. He said the President does not show hesitation in shutting down establishments and institutions if they do not provide the expected services to the public.

“President Rajapaksa always gives clear directives to us to close down establishments which do not provide the expected services to the people,” Weeratunga said.

The country’s administrative process was completely changed with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was implemented without the people’s consent, the Secretary said.

Weeratunga was speaking at the presentation of land deeds to persons who do not own land, under the 12th stage of Ranbima title presentation programme launched by the Lands Reforms Commission (LRC) at Temple Trees yesterday. It was held under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“ The time has come for the people to evaluate the pros and cons of the Provincial Council system which was set up under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution without calling for a referendum,” he said.

The Secretary said it is left to the people to evaluate the benefits received from the Provincial Councils which were established in 1989.

He said public views were not sought prior to the enactment of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution on which Provincial Councils were set up.

The Secretary to the President said the provision of a plot of land to a person who does not inherit an inch of land in the country has become a cumbersome process today as there is a clash between the Provincial councils and District Secretaries over land powers.

“The people seeking land have to go to various places to get approval due to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution,” he said.

The Secretary said the distribution of lands among the landless was a simple process before the 13th Amendment was in force.

“An Assistant Government Agent was able to provide a land to a family who did not have legal ownership of their own land earlier,” he said.

Weeratunga said the LRC which comes under the direct supervision of the President has carried out tremendous work in all parts of the country including the North and East.

The Secretary to the President said the country went through an era in where the people’s lives were in danger due to terrorist atrocities.

Parents were left with no other option than hanging around the gates of schools fearing terrorist attacks.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was determined in eliminating terrorism from the country faced many obstacles, he said.

He said many countries including the UK, United States, France and neighbouring India exerted pressure to stop the humanitarian operation launched by the government to free the country from terrorism.

Weeratunga said President Rajapaksa replying to these forces said the majority of the people in the country had given him a clear mandate to free the country from terrorism and he remained committed to achieve this objective.

Kathirkaamam festival postponed, pilgrims on foot from Jaffna stranded midway

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 June 2013, 12:41 GMT]
Saivaites in the country of Eezham Tamils have expressed deep concern over the sudden change of dates of the annual festival of the Kathirkaamam Murukan Koyil this year without any notice to them. Hundreds of Saiva devotees who are on foot pilgrimage that commenced last month from Jaffna Chella Channithi Murugan Koyil via districts of Killinochchi and Mullaithivu to reach Kathirkaamam on the day of flag hoisting that was to take place on July 8 have been stranded in midway in the districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa with the announcement of the new dates by the Kathirkaamam Koyil administration that is now exclusively Sinhala-Buddhist. 

According to tradition and according to the Hindu Pagnchaangkam (Almanac) issued by the Hindu Cultural Affairs Ministry, this year's Kathirkaamam festival was to begin on July 8 with the flag hoisting ceremony and was to end with the Water-Cutting Ceremony on the Full Moon Day falling on July 22.

But this year, the Kathirkaamam Koyil administration headed by the Basanayake Nilame and Kapuralas has announced that the festival would begin on August 7 with flag hoisting and would end with the water cutting festival on the August 21 Full Moon Day.

The change of time table has been announced without even giving notice and reason to Sri Lanka's own ‘Hindu Cultural Affairs Department’ that comes under the Buddha Sasana Ministry and Religious Affairs. Hindu Cultural Affairs Department sources said that the date of Kathirkaamam Koyil festival had been changed without intimation to them.

Until a few decades ago, majority of the pilgrims who used to gather at Kathirkaamam was Tamils. Since time immemorial, the Jaffna Tamil devotees start their pilgrimage on foot from the Chella-Channathi Murukan temple and walk along the eastern coast to reach Kathirkaamam. They return via walking along the western coast, thus making a complete round of the island in the clockwise direction. They have a particular schedule and traditional halting places. With the changed announcement that has now completely ignored Tamils, the pilgrims stranded in the midway halting places are puzzled whether to abandon the pilgrimage or to stay in the halting places for a month.

GOVERNMENT’S CODE OF ETHICS FOR MEDIA MUST NOT BECOME A WOLF IN SHEEPS CLOTHING

Media Release-Media Ethics11/06/2013-Created on 11 June 2013

The government has presented a draft code of ethics for the media which it proposes to implement. The National Peace Council wishes to express its concern that the government’s draft media ethics code will be unnecessarily stringent with regard to the publication of news which the public have a right to know. The government’s motivation for coming up with the code of media ethics may be due to its concerns that its image and those of its members are being unfairly tainted by various allegations. Sections of the internet-based new media in particular have been severely critical of the government. Distorting the truth or manipulating news for the advantage of politicians or a political party is not an accepted value in a democracy. At the same time the publication of the truth may not always be in the interest of those who have to run the country.

The draft code prohibits “criticisms affecting foreign relations” and which “promote anti-national attitudes.” It also prohibits “material against the integrity of the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature.” These are broad categories which could lead to self-censorship by the media on account of fear of being deemed to have violated the governmental code of media ethics. The draft contains language that could be used to intimidate the media. Revelation of military secrets and other sensitive government information may be contrary to the public interest, even if it is true. What is and what is not in the public interest is not an easy decision to make. This problem is compounded by the fact that Sri Lanka does not have a Right to Information Act and hence there is no guideline to the journalists with regard to the scope of the public’s right to know.

We take this opportunity to call on the government to approve the Right to Information Bill that was submitted to Parliament in 2004. While a government would like anything which is adverse to its public image to be banned, the interests of the public requires that corruption, inefficiency and misdemeanors by ruling politicians should be published. They are published in other democracies and there have been several cases in court where the ultimate decision is taken by the courts. We regretfully note that in the South Asian region it is only Sri Lanka that still does not have such a law and we urge the government to pass the Right to Information bill into law and thereby seek to make Sri Lanka obtain its rightful place as a democratic nation in accordance with the United Nations Declarations and the requirements of good governance.

Presently the media are engaged in self censorship for fear of antagonizing those in positions of power in a context of disappearances and killings of journalists who have dared to expose crimes and illegalities by those in positions of power. The National Peace Council therefore believes that the threat to media freedom rather than media ethics must receive the most urgent attention of the government. There are many unresolved cases of murder and disappearance of media personnel. The government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, which made a study of this problem, recommended that the government should thoroughly investigate these cases and ensure that those guilty were apprehended and brought to justice.

Usually codes of ethics are taught in Schools of Journalism. The privately owned media already have a code of ethics which was formulated in 2002 by the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka in collaboration with other media organisations. If it was deficient in any respect it could formed the basis for further discussion with the media community rather than have the government draw up a fresh code of ethics. The publication of the draft code of ethics has given rise to concerns that it is meant to be an instrument of control and impact on the freedom of expression of the media. While journalistic standards in both the state and privately owned media can and must be improved, the National Peace Council believes that this should be a matter for self-regulation and not for governmental imposition upon the privately owned media.

We believe that the government should set an example of high media standards by considering the shortcomings in the state media and applying the government’s code of ethics for the media to the state media in the first instance. The state media has been used to manipulate news – an unethical practice, resorted to by successive governments as their political tool, which is unacceptable. The state media is run with public funds and therefore ought to be non-partisan in its approach and fair to all sections of the polity. The code of ethics drawn by the government should first be followed by the government media. The government could ensure that the state media follows the principles of professional journalism and upholds media ethics. As a first step we would welcome the state media’s adherence to the code of ethics developed by the Editors Guild.

Governing Council

The National Peace Council is an independent and non partisan organization that works towards a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. It has a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka in which the freedom, human rights and democratic rights of all the communities are respected. The policy of the National Peace Council is determined by its Governing Council of 20 members who are drawn from diverse walks of life and belong to all the main ethnic and religious communities in the country.