Media Release : Friday, 13 October 2006

Kicking Goals for the LTTE - International Mission on Press Freedom 

We learnt from media reports that an International Mission on Press Freedom is currently in Sri Lanka at the invitation of some of the local media institutions and organizations in the country. It is said that the team comprising of delegates from International Media Support (IMS), International Press Institute(IPI), International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), UNESCO, and the International News Safety Institute (INSI) will focus on issues such as threats to journalists and killings, freedom of expression and censorship and legal reforms.

As an organization committed to Peace, Unity and Human Rights, we welcome any basement focused on freedom of expression in a democratic society provided such missions are free from sinister motives. There is evidence to support our thesis that this Mission is being manipulated to parrot LTTE propaganda as it was hurriedly put together by LTTE's pet mouthpiece in the South, Sunanda Deshapriya of the Free Media Movement (FMM).

By examining the leading hosting organizations such as the so-called FMM, the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and Sri Lana Muslim Media Forum, it is clear to us that this Mission is not going to be unbiased when they release their end visit media statement and report. This is evidenced by the linkages of the FMM with some of the member institutions of the Mission, such as the International News Safety Institute (INSI) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). The FMM is an affiliate of the IFJ and Sunanda Deshapriya is the South Asia Coordinator of INSI. There goes the Mission's independence. It is impossible to have a free and fair assessment of the current situation in the short period of time this Mission has dedicated to spend in Sri Lanka, namely 3 days. Its timing, just before the proposed Peace Talk, should also be treated with suspicion.

It is fair to question whether this Mission was organized by the Free Media Movement just before the peace talks to embarrass the Government.

The LTTE friendly groups fostering separatism label themselves as the guardians of press freedom for their own survival. These foreign funded Groups are always vociferous whenever the terrorist outfit needs propaganda support but remain tight lipped when it comes to condemning the outfit's all forms of violation of human rights including recruitment of child soldiers and the assassination of politicians. The LTTE has a proven record of denying freedom of expression to ethnic Tamils who disagrees with their racist ideology. They are also famous for their vicious racist hatred of non-Tamils. It is interesting to note that the media controlled by leading figures of the so-called free media group do not utter a single word about the denial of freedom of expression of those 'living like slaves' in the so-called LTTE controlled areas although their propaganda machinery is catered to make use of every opportunity to attack the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka.

Perhaps, these opportunistic groups may not be aware that the International Media Support (IMS), one of the participants of the above International Mission had concluded in one of their reports published in December 2005 (para 3 of page 29 of "Support to Media in Sri Lanka") that media may be better off under President Rajapakse since he is considered as "liberal" and as "media friendly".

Given the above, we urge the government to be vigilant of how this Mission conducts its business whilst in Sri Lanka and to take measures to immediately counteract statements issued detrimental to the Government's record on Press Freedom and Human Rights. Failure to do so risks playing into the hands of unpatriotic forces, thus satisfying the conspiratorial objectives of organizations such as the FMM, contracted to kick goals on behalf of LTTE terrorists.

Dr Dasarath Jayasuriya

President (SPUR Vic)

Society for Peace, Unity & Human Rights in Sri Lanka (SPUR)
Reg No. A 003 07777 M
P.O. Box 4066
Mulgrave, Victoria, VIC 3170
Australia

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