Sri Lanka 'persecuting' media: rights watchdog

Colombo, Dec 31 - Free Media Movement (FMM), a media watchdog Monday said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is persecuting journalists while shielding a government minister who had allegedly assaulted a top official of the state-owned television station last week.

The incident took place Dec 27, when Labour Minister Mervyn Silva assaulted Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation's (SLRC) director of news T.M.G. Chandrasekara for not showing him speaking at a tsunami anniversary function and got beaten up by the staff as a consequence.

The FMM said: 'We are at a loss to understand how the president can, with conscience, persecute journalists of the SLRC whilst shielding his errant minister in blatant violation of every applicable democratic ethic.'

It said instead of punishing the minister by dismissing him from the council of ministers or removing him from parliament, where he was only a nominated member, President Rajapaksa had asked the police to investigate the conduct of the journalists.

The president had also communicated his displeasure in very strong terms to the senior management of the television station for having shown Thursday's incident live.

Hundreds of thousands of people across Sri Lanka had seen the two-hour long telecast. And if comments in the media were an indication the viewers largely applauded the treatment meted out to the erring minister.

'The president appears to have adopted an attitude wholly at odds with the public revulsion minister Silva's conduct provoked throughout Sri Lanka,' the FMM said.

The journalists' violent response to the conduct of the minister was but a 'spontaneous demonstration of resistance to political violence against journalists and media personnel', it asserted.

The media organization said Silva had a proclivity to threaten media freedom through the use of force. And the latest episode had once again brought to light the high degree of politicisation of the state-owned media in Sri Lanka.

The FMM pointed out that under the terms and conditions for the functioning of SLRC, it should be an independent public broadcasting corporation and not a politically partisan one.

The minister had allegedly stormed into the SLRC, along with his bodyguards, and assaulted news director Chandrasekara for not showing him speaking at a tsunami anniversary function in Matara Dec 26, in which the Sri Lankan president was the chief guest.

However, Silva swore that he never assaulted Chandrasekara and declared that he would resign if it were proved that he had done so.

(c) Indo-Asian News Service

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