Media freedom the truth

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe

SS: In the course of this conversation, I have relied heavily on UN sources, on various NGOs to get the information I’m putting to you. The reason partly is because journalists have been barred from any approach to the frontline areas - including the BBC and Sri Lankan journalists as well. You have made it impossible to get information about what is really happening, to journalists, haven’t you?

MS: I must admit that, initially, we couldn’t facilitate their requests to go to these areas. But, since January, we have been facilitating (them). In fact, I have been looking at the records preparing myself for the interview and I noticed that, in January alone, the BBC has gone thrice to Kiliniochchi and Mullaitivu. Just about three or four days ago, we have facilitated not only the international media but (also) the local media to go to Vavuniya to look at the camps because there were a lot of stories being spread about the conditions of these camps. So we wanted them to have a look at what is really taking place.

SS: Why has your Government, in the course of the last couple of months, consistently blocked reports on the BBC; the Tamil, the Sinhala and the English services that you didn’t like? Why did you do that?

MS: This is a contractual agreement that the BBC has entered into with the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation....

SS: Which says: “no editorial interference”. That’s the agreement.?

MS: Yes. So that is something the BBC has to sort out with the SLBC because there was a contract governing that arrangement. Don’t forget, there is a commercial radio that is broadcasting BBC. Internet is available; anyone can look at the BBC telecast on (the) internet. (The) (O)nly thing is it is not on shortwave, it is on FM. But it is not as if the Government’s policy was to block (the) BBC.

SS: Minister, obviously you won’t take responsibility for it. Would you regret the fact that BBC has had to withdraw its services, re-broadcast on the Sri Lankan network because we were being editorially interfered with? Do you regret that?

MS: Once again, it is a contractual issue. I don’t want to get involved in this. Let the SLBC and BBC figure it out what they are going to do as the next step. As far as I am concerned, I am happy that BBC is broadcast through a commercial radio channel.

SS: Alright, let’s move on. There is a bigger picture and that is your Government stands accused of failing to protect journalists, allowing forces inside your country to act with impunity in their

attacks on leading journalists; Sri Lankan journalists. Would you accept that there is a fundamental problem for independent journalists inside your country?

MS: I don’t agree that there is a fundamental problem for independent journalists in our country, because all you have to do is look at a Sunday newspaper in Sri Lanka to see the personal attacks which are still launched against not only against the President.

SS: I’d like to take a look at the Sunday Leader, edited by one of your respected editors - Lasantha Wickrematunga - but of course I can’t do that because he was murdered in early January.

MS: Well, (the) Sunday Leader, as a matter of fact, is still continuing to publish and they have not compromised on their style of investigative journalism. They still write stories about Government Ministers, the President and even his family members. That has not stopped. Lasantha was a great friend of mine. In fact, on the day he was assassinated he was on the telephone with me at seven-thirty in the morning. This is something we have been doing for some time.

SS: He was a great friend of yours and the President claimed he was a great friend of his too. How did you feel when you read his self-written valedictory when he knew that he was in danger of death and he wrote: “murder has become the primary tool whereby the State seems to control the organs of liberty.” And of your own President, his so-called friend, he said: “for all the dreams you had for your country in your younger days, it has been reduced to rubble. In the name of patriotism you trampled on human rights like no President before you”. Those are his words before he died.?

MS: Well Lasantha was not only a journalist; he was also a political personality. Everyone knew that he was aligned to the United National Party which is the largest opposition political party and this is something that he has always been taking; this kind of line. These kinds of words have been espoused by him not only after his death but also when he was living. Lasantha Wickrematunga’s assassination was a barbaric act, something that we have condemned wholeheartedly. The President has put in place a special investigative team. Two arrests have been made and, more than anyone else, I would like to see the culprits of this barbaric act being held accountable for what they did. They have to be punished and we are determined to do that.

SS: You are the Minister for Human Rights and you have not, in any way, indicated to me that you worry about the Sri Lankan Government and, for example, the Defence Minister (sic) naming specific journalists in public broadcasts, as accusing journalists of being traitors; the Ministry of Defence website using the same words. Are you not worried about the atmosphere that your own Government is creating which runs counter to human rights and freedom of the press?

MS: Well (the) killing of journalists, disappearances of journalists is something that the Government has always condemned. We want to, as much as you espouse this, we also want to see - more than you - the culprits of these murders and abductions being held accountable, but it is not an easy situation that we are facing. It is a very complex situation we are facing. For example, when the Army Commander was nearly blown up and died in April 2006, we were all waiting to see the people responsible for this held accountable, but we have not been able to crack this case.