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Sri Lankan media resists censorship with lawsuits, defiance, humor |
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June 6, 2000
COLOMBO, JUNE 5 (AP) - "Censored." The Sunday Times splashed the single word across the op-ed page after the government censor spiked its entire report on the escalation of the war against Tamil separatists in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula.
Iqbal Athas, the author of the article, submitted his manuscript to the censor ahead of publication, as all journalists reporting about the civil war in Sri Lanka have been obliged to do. It came back with a rubber stamp: "This article, picture/map are censored and NOT permitted to be published."
As soldiers fight Tamil rebels in the north and bombs go off elsewhere in this small island nation, such government screening has become common. Every day, Sri Lanka's English, Sinhala and Tamil language papers publish truncated news reports and opinion pieces with "Censored" in bold type sprinkled across the pages, representing portions deleted by the government censor.
On Monday, the Sri Lankan government lifted the censorship on foreign news media, Assistant Director of Information Kusum Rodrigo said.
"Censorship on local media will continue," Rodrigo told The Associated Press, adding that an official statement would be released soon.
The censorship began May 3, when the government invoked the Public Security Ordinance to ban the media from reporting news that officials think will create public disturbance or harm the national interest. Under the ordinance, criticism of government ministers, military and police is taboo.
But editors say the censor has not told them what constitutes national security and how their stories compromise it. In the case of the Sunday Times article, author Athas said the government "gave no explanation for censoring the piece." "It was about how the president's Cabinet met and what is happening on the ground in Jaffna," Athas said in an interview.
The map just had all the towns in the north ... something you find in any atlas, and the photo was a generic picture of a multibarrel rocket launcher."
Under the ordinance, police and soldiers can seize any property or jail anyone for up to a year without giving any explanation. The earlier censorship laws provided for three warnings, a trial by a judge and a maximum punishment of two years.
Police have shut down three newspapers, saying they violated censorship. One of these - the only Tamil language paper that was still publishing in the embattled city of Jaffna - had reported that air force bombings killed civilians. Another had carried mock reports, giving war news but saying it had "not" happened. Two of the closed papers have filed challenges in the country's Supreme Court.
The civil war on this small nation off India's southern tip has raged for 17 years and has left 62,000 people dead. Most ethnic Tamils have been protesting what they see as discrimination by the Sinhalese majority, which controls the government and the military. The rebels want to establish a homeland in the north and east for the country's 3.2 million Tamils.
Journalists are barred by both the military and the rebels from traveling to the war zone. The government also cut phone lines to Jaffna, saying it wants to prevent communication with rebels who may be hiding in the towns.
The government censor routinely deletes references to rebel claims of casualties in the fighting. Sri Lankan TV carries no footage of the war other than rare sanitized scenes provided by the Defense Ministry. Live broadcast of news and current affairs programs are banned; cable operators have been ordered to cut CNN and BBC broadcasts.
In addition to the word "Censored" stamped throughout their pages, The Sunday Times and its sister publication, The Daily Mirror, print a cartoon each day of a blindfolded man, with his hands tied together and a newspaper stuffed into his mouth. Some analysts see Sri Lanka's coming parliamentary elections as central to the censorship. Ahead of the elections in August, President Chandrika Kumaratunga is trying to build a national consensus on an autonomy plan for Tamils while her troops fight the war.
"I think the censorship is more aimed at the elections than at the war," said C.A. Chandraprema, an independent political analyst. The chief censor, who deletes from news reports any comment from the rebels' Web site or radio broadcasts, is also the chief government spokesman who issues statements each day reporting military successes. Chandraprema said that means people here have no way of assessing whether the government claims are true or false.
"Anything that comes through the Internet and fax doesn't have the credibility of newspapers. It doesn't go through the normal news process of corroboration and fact checking," Chandraprema said.
Monday's announcement came after international press associations and Western governments urged Kumaratunga to lift censorship, which has resulted in foreigners knowing much more about the war than Sri Lanka citizens. Robert Menard, general secretary of the organization Reporters Without Borders, told Kumaratunga the censorship violates the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression. Sri Lanka is a signatory.
Earlier, the president told The Hindu newspaper of India she may end censorship if the military situation improves. She complained of "irresponsible" and "demoralizing" reports that could inflame communal passions and incite Sinhalese radicals to attack the minority Tamils.
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