Distorted images - Australian media coverage on conflict in Sri
Lanka
by Indeewara Thilakarathne and Ranga Chandrarathne
When it comes to following the simple rules of reporting on Sri
Lanka's war on terror, the rule of certain Australian media is simple.
It fails. The media reports are flawed and incomplete.
For example, with regard to an operation by the Sri Lankan military
focusing on terrorist bases in the North of the island, the Australian
Broadcasting Service (ABC) reported on 9th February 2008: "Sri Lankan
troops have killed at least 29 Tamil Tiger rebels, taking the two-day
death toll to 44, amid fresh fighting in the island's north, the
military said.
The fighting along a border that separates Government from rebel
territory in the north was the latest violence in a 25-year civil war
analysts say neither side is winning."
The interesting issue about this lead in the ABC website is the
reference that the "analysts say neither side is winning."
This is indeed interesting as the ABC journalists do not reveal the
source or any information about the analysts. So they fail in following
the basic rule of the 5Ws in simple reporting explaining What, When,
Where, Why and Who. In this case, the journalist who compiled the report
left the Who (analyst who ever that person may be!) for the imagination
of the reader or the listener.
The famous words of analysts appear again, in another ABC news
report, once again, without revealing the analyst. A report was filed on
the ABC website on 6 February 2008 in response to a news item of Sri
Lanka Army's alleged claim on the destruction of 30 bunkers built by the
LTTE terrorists: "Sri Lankan troops backed by tanks and artillery
destroyed 30 Tamil Tiger bunkers in the island's far north on Wednesday
killing 12 rebels, while air force jets bombed a gathering of rebel
leaders, the military said.
The pre-dawn ground fighting along a border that separates Government
from rebel territory in the far northern Jaffna peninsula comes amid an
ever-deepening new chapter of a 25-year civil war analysts say neither
side is winning."
This is once again inaccurate and not in the lines of the 5Ws of news
reporting as the analysts (Who) are not clear and particularly how the
journalist made the "judgment" of why neither side is winning without
any verifiable reports.
Tiger guerrillas or LTTE terrorists similarly using the AFP news
reports, the Melbourne based The Age newspaper also has passed judgments
distorting facts and figures on the War on Terror in Sri Lanka.
One such assumption is a judgment passed about the "scores of
innocent people killed since the Government's unilateral withdrawal from
a Norwegian-arranged ceasefire with Tamil Tiger guerrillas."
On the surface, these words appear innocent but they hide a cruel
story and some harsh realities of the atrocities carried out by the LTTE,
which is a proscribed organisation by the USA, Australia's number one
foreign ally.
The Age newspaper story emphasises that the "scores of innocent
people" got as a result of the Government of Sri Lanka's unilateral
withdrawal of Norwegian-arranged ceasefire." The hidden (and the obvious
message, they massaged out of the "fact" is that no killings took place
during the ceasefire.)
If this reporter did a simple search it would have been easier to
locate information how many times the Tigers violated the ceasefire
agreement destroying public and private property and innocent civilians.
The usage of the words and the description of the LTTE as mere Tamil
Tiger guerrillas provide a subdued interpretation to a worldclass
terrorist organisation. Even the website of Garth Evens' International
Crisis Centre identifies the LTTE as a ruthless organisation: "The
nature of the main Tamil nationalist organisation, the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has made any peace settlement even harder.
The LTTE has been banned in many countries because of its use of
suicide bombers and child soldiers, widespread human rights abuses, and
its intolerance of any dissent within the Tamil community" (source:www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4459&l=1)
It was Mr. Evens who first articulated the idea of the need for an
international armed force and the concept of Right to Protect (R2P) the
"people" in the LTTE controlled areas while delivering the Neelan
Thiruchelvam memorial lecture in Colombo in 2007.
Neelan Thiruchelvam - the Harvard Law School Graduate turned
politician and human rights activist was killed on 29 July 1999 and he
was not the only high profile Tamil politician killed by the LTTE. There
were a series of politicians including Tamils who were assassinated by
the Tamil Tigers.
As a member of the Tamil United Liberation Front and Member of
Parliament, Dr Thiruchelvam helped the development of a new constitution
that would provide redress for minority grievances while protecting the
rights of all ethnic groups in the country.
The online Britannica directory reported the LTTE atrocities in 1999
including the killing of Thiruchelvam as follows: "In September Tamil
fighters slaughtered nearly 60 unarmed Sinhalese villagers.
The country was especially shocked by the LTTE's murder of Neelan
Thiruchelvam, a member of Parliament and an internationally recognized
human rights activist, on July 29. (Source: www.britannica.com/eb/article-9342536/Sri-Lanka)
The journalist must have a long memory and should be the eyes and
ears of a society and with finger-tipped information (unlike those of us
from the Third World with meagre resources) our Aussie counterparts
should have access to plethora of information that LTTE is not a Tamil
Tiger guerrilla group but a terrorist organisation proscribed in USA, UK
and the Europe.
Tiger assassinations of prominent politicians
1989 A. Amirtalingham - Tamil Politician
1991 Rajiv Gandhi - Former Indian Prime Minister
1991 Ranjan Wijeratne - Former Defence Minister
1993 R Premadasa - Former Sri Lankan President
1994 Gamini Dissanayake - Opposition Presidential candidate
1998 Two Mayors of Jaffna 1999 - Neelam Thiruchelvam - TULF member
2000 C. V. Guneratne - Minister
2005 Lakshman Kadiragamar - Former Foreign Minister |
