Controversial Channel 4 Producer Meets UK Deputy High Commissioner [June 24 2011]

Callum Mcrae, the producer of the notorious documentary, “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” took part in a discussion aired by the Asian Network of the BBC on Wednesday.

This gave him the opportunity to meet Mr P M Amza, the acting High Commissioner of the Sri Lankan High Commission, along with two representatives of the Sinhalese community and that of Tamil – one from each.

Mr Mcrae, who has been at the centre of scathing criticism – not just by the government of Sri Lanka, but by a section of independent journalists - for being blatantly biased, struggled throughout the discussion to maintain his credentials for fairness.

He was forced to dig his heels deeper on more than two occasions: when the programme presenter pressed him to give the frequency of references made about atrocities committed by the Tamil Tigers, Mr Mcrae said, “There were quite a few.” The presenter mocked him by saying that he too watched it and Mr Mcrae had been economical with the truth on it – Nihal, the programme presenter corrected Mr Macrae by saying there were only insignificant number of references.

Then Mr Amza, the acting High Commissioner, confronted him about the controversy over the translation of two video clips. As a Tamil speaker, alleged Mr Amza, the translation of the communication between some members of the Tamil Tigers was not properly translated into English in the documentary. On the contrary, the programme maker cleverly used it to amplify the intended hype so that he could eye a huge global audience.

Mr Mcrae got into difficulty again when he was asked about an article written by Mr A A Gills in the Sunday Times, in which he criticised obsession of Channel 4 to prop up one-sided atrocities on regular basis, even after the war ended two years ago.

When Mr Amza pointed out that Channel 4 has a sinister motive against Sri Lanka, Mr Mcrae responded by saying that it was not true. When challenged to justify the release of these documentaries by Channel 4 at crucial meetings involving Sri Lankan government ministers or officials, Mr Mcrae chose the easy option – denying the charge. He failed to substantiate his defence either.

The representative of the Tamil community, who has not been to Sri Lanka for more than 25 years, meanwhile said that Tamils are not safe in Sri Lanka. When Mr Amza asked him to account for the thousands of Tamils who choose the Sri Lankan Airlines to make the trip every month, he chose to be evasive, while sticking to his guns.

The fact that BBC decided to take up this issue shows the telecast of the irresponsible documentary is the easiest thing for Channel 4 to do; the unexpected developments in the aftermath of it are proving to be much more challenging than what it has anticipated. The television channel has to march a long way to show that it is not a mouthpiece for the remnants of a terrorist outfit. In that context, if it thinks that the Sri Lanka government bleeds following the documentary, Channel 4 must remember that it got bruised too – and pretty badly. Asian Tribune