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Minister tells Channel 4:

Rebut or regret

Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe addressing Colombo based diplomats yesterday at the Presidential Secretariat to apprise them of the bogus Channel 4 video footage said that in the face of scientific and expert evidence proving that the video clip was a doctored one the Government expects Channel 4 to rebut the evidence or publish an apology of their unprofessional conduct that has been grossly detrimental to the image of Sri Lanka.

He told the diplomats that the Government was considering taking other remedial action to safeguard the image of the country if Channel 4 failed to take either of these steps.

At least 40 members of the Diplomatic Community were present at the presentation made by three Sri Lankan resident experts in the field of study of computer, video, digital and mobile phone images, and a Sri Lankan of internationally renowned in this field from Australia who had also sent his own scientific observations, to show that the Channel 4 video clip was doctored to carry an image detrimental to Sri Lanka.

Former Secretary, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Dr. Palitha Kohona said the Channel 4 video and earlier false news reports about the situation in the final days of the battle to defeat terrorism, showed the necessity to change the attitude that prevailed among many that whatever Sri Lanka does is wrong or has to be shown in a matter that would harm the image of the country.

Attorney General Mohan Peiris said the Government was considering appropriate measures to meet with the challenge thrown by Channel 4 and others who had aired these deliberately false and highly damaging images about Sri Lanka and its Armed Forces.

Those who made presentations to the diplomats at the Presidential Secretariat were Dr. Chathura Ranjan de Silva - senior lecturer of the Department of Computer Science, University of Moratuwa, Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, Head of the Sri Lanka Army Signal Corps and Major P. A. Bandara of the Media Centre for National Security.

Siri Hewawitharana who is a Digital Video Developer in Australia, and former head of Cisco’s Global Broadcast and Digital Video Practice had sent his observations, which agreed that the Channel 4 video was a doctored image not made on a mobile phone, as claimed, but on a more sophisticated camcorder or video recorder.

Minister Samarasinghe also said that it was highly unprofessional for Channel 4 News to have aired the video sent by a hitherto unknown organisation named Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, which came to public notice only with its first blog on the internet in August 2009 and a Press Release the previous month.

“The four separate scientific researches into the alleged UK’s Channel 4 telecast video clip has established that the incident portrayed was merely a fabricated production which contained many technical improvements to support the dastardly motivated will of its producers”, the Minister said.

Accordingly the four independent professionals did a thorough and comprehensive analysis on the validity of the video clip. Among these professionals are Siri Hewawitharana, who is an Australian Digital Video Developer, The former head of Cisco’s global broadcast and digital video practice and Executive Director at IPTV System, Dr Chathura Ranjan de Silva who is the Senior lecturer of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Director for the Centre of Instructional Technology for the University of Moratuwa, Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe who is the Head of the Sri Lanka Army Signal Corps and Major P.A. Bandara of the MCNS. When looking at these four investigations one can see that they have all come to a common conclusion.

Firstly that this footage was not videoed using a mobile phone camera as was stated in the Broadcast but rather by a device such as a digital camcorder.

Secondly that the audio track was clearly dubbed and, thirdly the sound of the shooting was coming from a long distance rather than that of a gun from point blank range as shown in the video.

Clarifying his findings Major P.A Bandara showed that the so called previously “killed” man has his leg kept parallel to the ground in one frame. As soon as the other man is “shot” the dead man’s leg is lifted up. He also observed that one of the so called soldiers was wearing a white T-shirt underneath. It is a uniform regulation for soldiers of the Sri Lankan Army to wear an Olive green T-shirt issued by the Army under their uniform and therefore white T-shirts are not acceptable.

He also observed that one of the so called soldiers had overgrown hair which is also unacceptable. Meanwhile he showed that the blood stains of a so called victim were centralised to one area despite the presence of water which usually dilutes and spreads it.

When looking closely at the leg of one of the so called “victims” one can clearly see that his leg is held in a stiff position despite him being shot. Another key observation made by the Major is that the skin complexions of the so called victims are fairer than those of the average Sri Lankan citizens living in the North. Therefore he concluded that this footage is without a doubt a fraud.

Siri Hewawitharana in his analysis had stated that: “Looking at the footage the first thing I found strange is, was the high quality of video lack of cascading effects and motion blur that is associated with the mobile video coding.

I got hold of the original video that was in Quick Time formats as well as the other that was in AVI Format and put through various tests to see the origin of the video from the mobile source. Looking at his results it is evident that this video never came from a mobile phone.”

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