Monday, October 22, 2007

Irresponsible media coverage on SLA container accident

On the last 15th, a container belonging to the army crashed near Koswatte junction. Although there were no injuries nor any serious damage to the transported goods, the incident immediately drew local media attention. However most of the media reports that surrounded the incident were inaccurate.

The container was transporting uniforms, weapons and other supplies to SLA positions in the Northern FDL. Transport missions such as these are usually performed in utmost secrecy. Therefore the army immediately cordoned off the crash site, making it off limits to pedestrians and journalists alike. Even the mobile phone services in the area were temporarily suspended. This was all done to prevent the enemy gaining access to critical intelligence information. However several local and international media institutions  interpreted this move as 'a threat to media freedom'. Some local news bulletins even mentioned that the SLA personnel deployed at the site 'harassed' the journalists. 

If any video footage of the incident was released to the public, it could have put army's next move in northern FDL in jeopardy. Anyone with a fair knowledge on defense matters could have determined the army's battle plan if they saw what was on board the container. We do not have any hatred towards media institutions but it's our belief that "Media freedom" should never be exploited to aid the enemy.

17 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Sorry to be out of topic...

    I could not wait to share this quote,

    "During the four decades of confrontation, not a single Tamil leader has been murdered by the Sri Lankan Security Forces " Minister Douglas Devananda informed the gathering.

    He is one among a few Tamil leaders who have escaped death by the LTTE. Other leading Tamil leaders like A. Amirthalingam, V. Yogaeswaran, A. Thangathurai, Mrs. Sarojini Yogeswaran, Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, S. Sivapalan, Kumar Ponnambalam, Sri Sabaratnam, K. Padamanabha and Sam Tambimuttu and his wife Kala and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar were eliminated by the LTTE to maintain their self proclaimed status-quo of the sole representatives of the Tamil people. The Minister charged that Tamil political leaders who succeeded them were compelled to be subservient to the LTTE."

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  3. The source of the above is

    http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20071021_08

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  4. Thanks for guys again who commented on earlier article.

    Let me say some thing regarding this 'irresponsible' media coverage. We don't have a responsible media coverage in SL. Our media heros learn from western media such as BBC, CNN. Western media revelas any thing about third world countries such as ours. So our media simply do the 'same'. But our media don't see how western media hide things in order to protect their own countries. If our media didn't enjoy thier freedom when Milenium city incedent happened may be now the war is over. It is good that SLA learned the lesson, understand our media and keep them away at that time.

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  5. Well, many people ask what is the problem tamil people have and sinhala people don't have? No one answered this including (chandrika, ranil, thissa) those who giving solutions to the same problem. Here is the answer.

    Both sinhala and tamil people have one government, so one president, one prime minister both are sinhala, not by low by practice. This is not a problem for many tamils but it is for educated, rich, respected leaders (high caste or whatever). So they think as sinhalese rule them. When british rule them were proud of that but not for sinhalese. And it is easy to convince poor uneducated tamils who are thier followers all these problems (i.e. economic releted problems which every normal person in SL has) are due to sinhalese rule. So they want a federel state if not a seperate country. So this is basically a mental problem originated by (tamil) racism and driven by every thing else (weaknesses in our goerning system, stupidity/racism of sinhala leaders/people, economic issues, international influences etc.)

    As dividing SL is excluded we need to give some power to those tamil leaders to rule their people (or for another option see below). This is called giving a political solution and recomended by every one else except sinhala majority. OR we need to set up a perfect system so that tamil normal people are satisfied and live with them with real humanity. If the majority of a country is less rich, less educated and less diciplined compared to minority it is always a problem and this is the case in SL thanks to british rule. So as sinhalese we need to improve our standards which is not happening.

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  6. There is another thing we need to understand. Among sinhala people LTTE is not thier biggest enemy. The 'parama hathura' is UNP, SLFP or JVP depending on their own party. LTTE is just a secondary enemy. This is a truth and we need to keep this in mind when we read comments.

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  7. Let me say some thing relates to international comunity. First we need to understand no country will help SL just for 'friendship'. They have their own tactics when they help and don't help. It is mainly having a good deal for them. India, China, US and others worry about security of their own countries and not ours. However when India, US, UK, EU, UN and other experts say 'military solution is not possible' it is thier hope rather than veiw. I hope guys here have good brain to understand why they don't want SLA to crush tigers.

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  8. The Tamils have to wake up to the fact that they are a minority. That does not mean that they are 2nd class citizens or should be treated as such.

    In a democracy the will of the majority of the people rule. Thats how it works they have to make peace with that fact.

    Most likely within our lifetimes the Muslims will overtake the Tamils as the largest minorty in Lanka, due to their high birth rates. Then what are the Tamils going to do? The Eelam claim doesn't have a leg to stand on anyways.

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  9. The LTTE and their supporters are mainly to blame for the plight the Tamils are facing today. They killed more tamils than anyone else. All this for the "pie in the sky" rhetoric of murdering maniac. After 25 years of swimming in blood, all they have to show for it are a few empty buildings on Kili and some mud hut villages.

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  10. ninja bandara

    I have repeated said in this blog that:

    countries have no friends, they only have interests.
    ------------------------------

    This is the truth in the world we live in.

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  11. Apur AFB under combined LTTE AIr and Ground Attack!

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  12. From Defence wire!!!

    Anuradhapura Airbase Hit
    The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam launched a devastating combined air and ground attack on the Anuradhapura Airbase at 3.10am destroying four aircraft. Fighting still continues. Tiger units that entered the airbase have so far destroyed two MI-24 Helicopter Gunships, Sri Lanka's only Beach Craft and one K-8 Trainer Jet. Another Bell-212 Helicopter transporting reinforcements crashed at Mihintale. The airbase is situated in Anuradhapura Town. Two Tamil Ealam aircraft dropped three bombs on the base and left unharmed.

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  13. LTTE website puthinam claims possibly one of their LTTE planes shot down contrary to defencewire of them both returning safely. One has been confirmed to have returned.

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  14. Thats strange Navindran, why would the LTTE admit to a loss like that?

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  15. Goldeneagle, the Tamils are quite aware of the fact that they are a minority. They "woke up" to that a long time ago. The point is, however much one argues about whether present day Tamils are treated equally or not, the fact is they were not treated equally in the past, which was the reason for the war. So now we (the Sinhalese and the GoSL) needs to convince them that we will treat them equally in the future. For that we must go the extra mile, and lean over backwards. It is hard, I know, but it is the only way. If you look at the US, they redressed the past racism against blaacks by going to the other extreme, with quota systems and other positive discrimination. Eventually, that was no longer needed, and everything fell into its natural place. We need to do the same.

    Now before Arsithri & co jump in and start calling me a Tiger (or worse) and others accuse me of discussing non-defence related topics, let me just point out that I'm merely responding to a subject already brought up.

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