Channel 4 video a fake - MCNS

It is clear that the remaining LTTE supporters and a section of the Tamil Diaspora, are making an unending effort to discredit the Armed Forces and the Government of Sri Lanka by launching bogus propaganda campaigns, to woo the International Community and disrupt the post war rehabilitation and reconstruction process that are in full swing in Sri Lanka, the Media Centre for National Security said.

The latest ruse in their discrediting campaign came to light as recently as last week when a doctored video was telecast through the United Kingdom based Channel-4 claiming alleged "torture of Tamils".

The Government of Sri Lanka has categorically rejected the allegations claimed by this footage since the Government believes the video concerned is a fake.

Time and time again the remaining LTTE supporters have made attempts to tarnish the image of the Government and win over the Tamil Diaspora by launching such false propaganda through the media which supports their own cause.

There are so many examples of their shameless attempts to recapture the lost momentum in the wake of their humiliating defeat.

One such event is; even after the death of Prabhakaran at the hands of the valiant troops in the lagoon of Vellamullavaikkal, a fake photo was posted on the pro-LTTE website 'Tamilnet',depicting him watching his own body on a TV screen as a part of a concerted effort to hoodwink the Tamil Diaspora and its overseas members.

A few other examples which they promoted to gain the sympathy of the International Community are fabricated stories on alleged Army attacks on passenger busses, Sencholai orphanage and Kilinochchi Hospital etc.

Channel-4 seems to be one of the media organizations supporting the LTTE cause to discredit the Sri Lankan Government and the Armed Forces. This was clearly highlighted on the 5th of May 2009 when Channel-4 broadcast a video clip on IDP centers where they claimed that "dead bodies were left where they fell, shortages of food and water, and sexual abuse".

The telecasting of this fake video clip eventually led to Channel-4 journalists Nick Paton Walsh, Bessie Du and Matt Jasper being deported from the country.

On the 23rd of July Channel-4 journalist Jonathan Miller telecast an interview with Selvarasa Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, the self proclaimed leader of the world's most ruthless terrorist outfit, illegal arms supplier and drug dealer.

KP who was one of the most wanted terrorists in India regarding the murder of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as well as being wanted by the Sri Lankan authorities for numerous crimes was arrested by the Sri Lankan security personnel on the August 6, 2009.

The most recent fake footage aired by Channel-4 claimed that the Sri Lankan soldiers executed Tamils earlier this year went on calling for 'human rights commissions and investigations into extra judiciary killings and so called war crimes'.

This entire footage was said to have been supplied by a group calling themselves as the 'Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka', an ad hoc organization unheard of before, who is said to have smuggled the said footage out of the country. Channel-4 reporter Jonathan Miller himself admits that it is impossible to independently verify the authenticity of the pictures.

This entire stage-managed footage is said to have been videoed by a soldier using a mobile phone camera. Certain points must be mentioned for consideration to investigate the authenticity of this fabricated drama.

The camera of the phone spans a wide expanse of country side

The victims are set against the horizon

The 'soldier' who shoots the victim is well placed to the right of the screen

No one's face is actually seen. This is a master piece of filming where the camera man possesses Oscar winning talents. It seems ironical that our soldiers in the battle field have such sophisticated technologically advanced, obviously very expensive devices just to make phone calls. In fact this phone used to shoot this video must be an awesome one as even the best of the best Blackberry, Nokia, I-phone etc has no such clarity when used to make either still pictures or movies.

A former head of Cisco's global broadcast and digital video practice, Siri Hewawitharana, Executive Director at IPTV System, has uncovered evidence of doctoring in the original footage telecast by the Channel-4. His observations showed that the high quality of the video, lacking of cascading effects and motions blur that is associated with mobile video coding. Since the original video is of a high standard and motion vectors were in high quality it cannot be taken from a mobile phone.

The Channel-4 video footage surprisingly does not expose faces of any of the persons holding guns at those 'Tamils" nor does it show any ranks of the so called Government troops. The fact that the tell tale casual dialogue has been done in "Sinhala" language to give credibility to the manipulated video piece is not a valid claim as this was not the first to have been dubbed by terrorists in Sinhala. On the other hand no soldier would have used a mobile phone with such a broad resolution, suitable to be given to a media institute like the Channel-4. Further-more why "smuggle" the video clip out of the country?

Every person who goes through the Bandaranaike International Airport knows that no one checks mobile phones for anything. However the word 'smuggle' in this context may have been used to create authenticity for this fake video clip. A few more key observations should be mentioned in this venture. One of the so called soldiers appearing in the footage has overgrown hair. The statures of the victims are bigger than those of an ordinary Sri Lankan.

The victims are completely fair than a Sri Lankan. As the shots are fired by the so called soldiers, the victims fall in opposite directions whereas it should be vice versa. Too much of shots are fired from the back ground.

When considering all these details of observation for this fake video, it is obvious that the Channel-4 news footage was purely designed and manipulated to take the attention of the international community into a new sphere of investigations, the press release said.