Live coverage of nomination day by Sri Lanka public media bias and partisan to Rajapakse , election monitors say

(December 18, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Amidst Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse's blatant illegal misuse of public property in his run to elect for the second term, one of the major election monitoring movement has written to the Election Commissioner regarding the bias and partisan live telecast of the nomination day by the public television channels. The television channel did not give equal importance to all candidates and gave an unethical prominence to the President Mahinda Rajapakse.


The content of the letter is as follows:
 
In Relation to the Live Telecast of Nomination Day for the 2010 Presidential Election
 
The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) would like to strongly protest against the biased and partisan nature of the Nomination Day Live Telecast for the 2010 Presidential Election shown today the 17th of December 2010.
 
The access and rights to telecast this important national occasion had only been granted to the State owned Rupavahini Channel. They have used this honorable occasion in a very biased and partisan manner currently.
 
Although every Presidential Candidate should get an equal amount of importance during the Live Telecast of the Presidential Nomination Event only ONE candidate was given importance. Not displaying the names of some candidates and their picture next to their name while displaying the name and picture of select candidates was a glaring obvious example of this biased and partisan conduct.
 
Furthermore, during the live telecast television presenters repeatedly mentioned the campaign slogan of one particular candidate. This biased and partisan reporting goes beyond the accepted norms and ethics of unbiased media reporting.
 
CaFFE observes that the situation was made into a totally partisan scenario and this situation arose because the rights to the live telecast were given to only one television channel. It is essential that Election Department take responsible charge of the situation and ensures that no single candidate gets an irregularly high amount of media time in the future Presidential Election period.
 
The situation has arisen again in which the requirement for a Competent Authority for State Media has once again been created by the partisan approach adopted the National State Television Channel of Sri Lanka when telecasting the nationally important nomination day. CaFFE would like to request you to look into this matter urgently.
 

Sri Lanka prevents UN rapporteur on freedom of opinion visiting Sri Lanka

(November 14, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  Frank La Rue, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression he is "perplexed" by Sri Lankan government's reluctance to allow him for a fact finding mission despite unofficially agreeing for the visit months ago. He says to BBC that he has been making the request unofficially since March this year and sent an official letter seeking permission to visit Sri Lanka in August or September but for no response from Sri Lankan mission in Geneva.


Sri Lanka government, as well as the defeated Tamil rebel organization LTTE, are accused of curtailing press freedom during the decades of conflict. The government earlier admitted that at least nine journalists had been killed since January 2006.

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, an organization of self-exiled Sri Lankan journalists say that more than 50 journalists have fled the country in fear of their lives.

A Sri Lankan court recently sentenced Tamil journalist J.N. Tissainayagam for 20 years under draconian anti-terrorism laws.

Sri Lankan media is under tight control of the government and the media persons say they have imposed self-censor on them in fear of threats.

Demilitarize media to bring democracy to society

(July 03, 2009) On the day, the Working Sri Lanka Journalists' Association secretary Poddala Jayantha was abducted and assaulted, while having a discussion with the media organizations, the President Mahinda Rajapakse proposed the journalists to settle the conflicts among them, reported Ravaya editor-in-chief Victor Ivan.

He meant the conflict between the pro-war and anti-war journalists. Anti-war journalists are today branded as the Tiger associates by the victorious pro-war media.

This phenomenon is reflected once again with an incident reported by Sunanda Deshapriya in the Freedom of Expression Sri Lanka blog. The title of the post is 'Death threats to Ravaya journalist from Divaina editor.' (You can read it by clicking the headline.)

We do not think the Army Commander or any other authority is naive enough to take any journalists tale readily and to punish a person swiftly. The problem remains among the journalists themselves. Sri Lankan journalists have to cultivate the patience to tolerate diverse opinions. They who criticize others should be able to bear criticism on them as well. Pens should be dealt with pens and not by guns.

First step to bring democracy to Sri Lankan society is to demilitarize the media persons. One party in Sri Lanka has already been demilitarized with the defeat of the Tamil nationalist militant movement.According to Ravaya editor Victor Ivan, the defeated party is also similar to the victorious.