Suppress press freedom is the best way to cover the truth

Government says that there is media freedom though there are some incidences for which the government is not responsible.

Sri Nissanka of Lakbimanews reports "the Rajapaksa government is talking about untrammeled media freedom in the country. President Mahinda Rajapaksa speaking at the Ruhunu Artists Forum, said there is absolute media freedom in the country but that the government is not answerable for isolated incidents as and when they occur"

This peculiar statement came just one day after the brutal attack on Anurasiri Hettige, the assistant director of sri lanka Rupavahini corporation, in broad day light and near a bus stand, by a group of thugs.

This is the fifth in a series of attacks by thugs, carried out on employees of the Rupavahini Corporation since it was stormed by the Minister of labour, Mervyn, three months ago.

These attacks have taken place in different zones of Colombo suburbs and apparently they were well planed. For example thugs knew about the movements and the locations very well.

On the other hand, police is unable to trace any of these culprits so far. Pattern of these events shows very clearly that these attacks were made on those who were directly or indirectly involved in the protest.

There was a massive protest against the attack on Rupavahini news director TMG Chandrasekara by Mervyn group. Obviously these strikes aimed at Rupavahini employees are not official actions of the state where security forces are involved.

Many of these disappeared were Tamils and several of them were journalists. Police also kept saying that they are investigating though without much success. However due to the actions of some apolitical police officers, several abductions were found to be carried out by the security forces.

One such case was that of Parameswari. She and her female friend were abducted by a white van clique, but the DIG Colombo was able to trace the van and finally she ended up in the TID. Then came, an astonishing explanation from the side of the government: The war against the Tamil insurgency has to resort to non conventional war tactics to eliminate terrorist living under-cover.

Apparently this has been carried out in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq by the American forces. Obviously wars by the ruling classes were never conducted according to human rights regulations or civil rights legislation. That is exactly why we campaign to stop the war and to start discussions.

In any case, the explanation of a legitimate government that disappearances and unidentified killings in its own area of jurisdiction could be a part of war efforts against rebels, has not been accepted in the UN or any other international forum.

Now, the government may claim that war situation has created dedicated patriotic elements that are angry with media people for false reporting; hence they resort to violence.

Of course, according to MR logic, this government is not responsible for such sporadic actions. Best it could do is to try and protect victims from such patriotic violence! If the government is not responsible then who will guarantee the lives of journalists? Or am I raising an unanswerable complicated question?

What is clear is that the first victim of war is the truth and the best way to cover the truth is to suppress press freedom. MR regime wants to achieve that not by any legislation but by other means.

Last year we witnessed the actions of Para military organizations. These were based in Tamil homeland but also operated in the south, even in Colombo high security areas. Now we see the actions of thugs or the 'patriotic elements'!