Defence Ministry issues warning to journalists

Sri Lanka's defence ministry earlier this month launched scathing attacks against journalists critical of its war against the LTTE, labelling them "cowboy defence analysts" and "enemies of the state."

In two commentaries published on its website, the ministry also railed against what it said was "crap" being written about its escalating effort to eject the Tamil Tigers from the island's north, reported AFP.

The ministry presents reporters with a stark choice of being either pro-government or pro-LTTE – sparking renewed alarm among media rights activists about freedom of the press in Sri Lanka, the agency said.

The defence ministry, headed by the hawkish brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, said in its May 31 editorial that "media personnel may have their individual reservations of the war against terror," but stressed that the "success of any war effort needs public support."

"The armed forces of this country are engaged in the noble mission of liberating the country from the clutches of terrorism," said one of the commentaries carried on the official defence.lk website.

It said some writers were damaging morale, and warned that the ministry "does not wish to entertain mere doomsayers who always try to undermine the soldiers' commitment."

It also warned it would take "all necessary measures to stop this journalistic treachery against the country," but did not elaborate.

"Those who commit such treachery should identify themselves with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rather than showing themselves as crusaders of media freedom," added the article.

Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based press rights watchdog, said it was "very shocked" by the comments and accused the ministry of giving "indirect support and justification for all the recent violence against the press."

At least 12 Sri Lankan media workers have been killed over the past two years, while others have been abducted, tortured or illegally detained, according to Amnesty International.

The second commentary on the ministry's website also slammed reporters who "try to speculate (there is) something fishy about" the government's huge arms procurements.

"We do not mind any person trying to make his living by writing whatever crap to the newspapers. Yet, we too have our right to lay bare the truth of those cowboy defence analysts, for the good of the public," the ministry said.

It urged anyone reporting on the decades-old war against the LTTE to stick to "pure reporting" and not mislead the public with "inane comments that they are not qualified to make."

Journalists are already barred from visiting the front lines and from crossing into LTTE-held areas.

The ministry said that criticism of the war was a part of the LTTE's "psychological operations," and that the "obvious aim of this is to bring international and public pressure on the government to abandon the military effort."

Culprits identified in the commentaries included the Free Media Movement (FMM) – , a Colombo-based media watchdog – as well as several local media outlets and "dollar vultures in many foreign funded NGOs."

The threats posed by the contents of the two Defense Ministry website articles "are in effect a death warrant to journalists and editors of the media," the FMM said in a statement.

Noting that the articles make serious allegations against "former FMM Convenor Sunanda Deshapriya, Sunday Times Associate Editor and defence columnist Iqbal Athas, and eight news outlets," International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia-Pacific said, “The Government of Sri Lanka must show it has the authority to order an end to these hate-inspiring attacks by defence personnel against independent media voices.”

Meanwhile the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to reverse the direction in which his government has turned, and restore to journalists throughout the country the right to freely report without fear or intimidation.

In a letter sent last Friday, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon stated, “President Rajapaksa, we recognise that your government is involved in an ongoing conflict with Tamil secessionists. But the security of the nation will not be enhanced by policies that curtail one of the most basic rights guaranteed in Article 14 of Sri Lanka’s Constitution — the right to freedom of expression.”

The committee, which expressed growing alarm by the government’s policies toward journalists who write critically about the conflict between Sri Lanka’s military forces and Tamil secessionists, noted that it had witnessed an increase in harassment, intimidation, and detention of reporters, many of whom are columnists in senior positions with well-established careers.

“Those who wish to harass, harm, or even kill journalists can operate with relative impunity in Sri Lanka. Your government, particularly the Defence Ministry, has done nothing, even as violence escalates in many parts of the country,” the letter charged.

“Based on our research, we have concluded that your government is stifling news reporting that it finds inconvenient, precisely because those reports attempt to accurately reflect the ebb and flow of such a war. Suppressing journalists will neither alter the course of the conflict nor generate more public support for it,” Simon emphasised.

Sri Lanka's bitter ethnic war which has left thousands of people dead has escalated sharply since January, when the government pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce with the LTTE.

The defence ministry says it is winning the war, and so far this year has reported the deaths of 4,033 Tamil Tigers.

At the start of the year, the island's military said the LTTE had 3,000 fighters.