Foreign scribes need lesson or two in reporting

by Indeewara Thilakarathne and Ranga Chandrarathne

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Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), the Canadian born media guru became well known for his media theories because of the title of his book, The Medium is the Massage. His work has influenced and revolutionised the media theories around the world. However, when he passed away in 1980, he wouldn't have thought that Western media would indeed 'massage' their messages when it comes to reporting of the war on terror in Sri Lanka.

The world newspaper reporting on the Sri Lanka's fight against terrorism has had many phases and iterations. When the first phase of clashes began in July 1983, it was reported as 'Anti-Tamil rioting breaking out in several parts of the city of Colombo.'

For example, the Radio Australia reported July 1983 incident under the heading Black July: "Civil war breaks out in 1983, with the Tamil areas coming under the control of separatist militias. In July 1983 (Black July), the LTTE ambushes an army patrol in Jaffna, killing 13 soldiers. This sparks anti-Tamil riots, in which an estimated 600 people die. From 1983 onwards the conflict between the Sinhalese majority of the South and the northern Tamil minority dominates Sri Lankan politics."

Based on a paper presented by Professor Chelvadurai Manogaran (the proceedings of International Conference On Tamil Nationhood and Search for Peace in Sri Lanka, Ottawa, Canada, 1999).

The tamilcanadian.com has reported: "The anti Tamil riots of July 1983, which some describe as the genocide in Sri Lanka, began when a truckload of thirteen Sinhalese army personnel was ambushed by the LTTE on July 23rd in Jaffna."

Despite the fact that 'a truckload of thirteen Sinhalese army personnel' was ambushed by the LTTE on July 23rd in Jaffna, the issue of 'Genocide in Sri Lanka' seeped into the popular usage immediately. Was it just the message or due to massaging of a message?

This trend can still be seen not only by pro Tamil groups but journalists from Western countries including the USA, Australia, and the UK.

Today, we want to provide a prologue of distorted reporting of the fight against terrorism in Sri Lanka to highlight that we have another war to win over. That is the war against distorted media reporting of the west of what's happening in Sri Lanka today.

In, journalism, news reporting can be described in simple 'five Ws and one H'.

The five Ws represent: Who, What, Where, When, Why and the H captures the question or issue of 'How'. In journalism, it simply the Six Ws in order for any news report to be complete and accurate incorporating the 'How' into the five Ws.

Despite this universal assumption (rule!), it is evident that there is a bias against the reporting of killings of innocent non-participants of any kind of combats and other civilians who become casual victims of the LTTE or Tamil Tiger attacks in Sri Lanka.

Even BBC journalist reporting from the grounds of Colombo of what is happening in the Northern parts of the island, sometimes forget the need to report on the 5 Ws and on the H!.

The BBC website in their south Asia section carried the main headline on 5th of February 2008, a news item on a bomb attack on a Sri Lankan bus near Anuradhapura not as a 'fact' but as an assumption. The lead reads:

"At least 13 people are believed to have died in a bomb attack on a civilian bus in northern Sri Lanka, the army says.

The irony is the BBC reporter either forgot or did not want to address WHO did this act of violence. It is obvious the Sri Lankan Government didn't plant the bomb and the BBC reporter had at least seen the impact on the bus (through some means) as there was a photograph along the lead. (Source: BBC.co.uk)

To add colour to the news report the BBC reporter provides another three simple snippets on two more incidents: "At least 11 people were killed in a suicide attack at Colombo's main railway station on Sunday. And on Saturday, 18 people died in another bus blast in the central town of Dambulla. Both were blamed by the government on the Tamil Tiger rebels, though the rebels have denied involvement."

According to the first paragraph I extracted from the report, the BBC journalist knew it was 'a suicide attack,' but once again he forgot or didn't want to report on WHO may have made this attack. As it is well-known the LTTE are the founders of suicide bomb attacks, a terrorist organisation, the 'fact' to be reported.

Later in the article the BBC reporter quotes as "rebel spokesman B. Nadesan" who said: "The Sri Lankan government is still continuing its ethnic cleansing and mass killings among the Tamil people."

It is not clear HOW he interviewed this 'rebel spokes person' and whether he is a member of a banned terrorist organisation in the country where the BBC head office is located.

The distorted reporting is not limited to BBC reporters. Even our 'friendly' Australian journalists (who first labelled the current world wicket holder, Sri Lankan Tamil Cricketer Murali, the chucker) provide further example of biased reporting.

Using a header 'Tamil rebels kill 13 in two attacks,' the online edition of Melbourne-based The Age newspaper reported without fully addressing 5 Ws or the H factor using news sources received from Colombo on 5 February 2008:

"TAMIL Tiger rebels are suspected of killing 13 people with two roadside bombs yesterday, hours after the Government celebrated Sri Lanka's 60th anniversary of independence with a parade of military might.

At least a dozen people were killed and 17 treated in hospital in a suspected rebel bombing of a civilian bus in the north-eastern town of Weli-Oya." (reference: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/)

According to The Age, reporting on the claymore attack (citing Reuter sources from Colombo) on the civilians is only a 'suspected' action of Tamil Tiger 'rebels'. It is once again evident this Tamil Tiger group is not a terrorist organisation and always they are a rebel group and not a terrorist group.

So we checked Australian Macquarie Dictionary. It defines the term rebel as 1, one who refuses allegiance to-2, one who or that which resists any authority or control. Whereas terrorist is defined as one who uses or favours terrorising methods of resisting a government or of governing.

May be the Third World journalist like us from Sri Lanka needs to remind both our colleagues feeding information from Colombo to their agents in the West or Down Under that there are fundamental rules to follow when reporting on incidents particularly any attacks on innocent civilians by known terrorist organisations such as LTTE.

So McLuhan may rise from his grave and write another book on how messages are massaged by our western counterparts when it comes to reporting the acts of terror in Sri Lanka.

The English writer Rudyard Kipling in his "Just So Stories" (1902), included a poem with the lines which immortalise the essential elements of the Five Ws and H which are of vital importance for objective reporting, particularly when it comes to reporting the acts of terror in our lost paradise:

"I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who."