The newsletter for Friends of the Sri Lanka Campaign

ON THE RECORDIssue 1 | September 2011

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Dear Friends,

Welcome to the first issue of our members’ newsletter, On the Record. After two years of running as a wholly volunteer organisation we decided that the situation in Sri Lanka was simply too grim for us to continue that way and so we have started to institutionalise. You may have seen a few changes on the website. We’re emailing you more often and now we’re sending you this newsletter.

We also have a new director, Fred Carver, who is paid (not much, I’m afraid!) and is keeping us on our toes. I hope you’ve noticed some of the issue-focused campaigns he has started, notably on media freedom and on accountability. The latter issue is finally getting some of the attention it deserves, thanks to the report of the UN panel followed by Channel 4’s excellent documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields and Amnesty International’s new report on Sri

Lanka’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) continuing the pattern of reinforcing impunity.

But there is still so much more we need to do – to bring the attention of the international community to continuing human rights violations in Sri Lanka, to help Sri Lankans take on their government and

to create the space for a free Sri Lanka to flourish.

And so to begin this vast and vital project we are focusing on media freedom – dedicating this first newsletter to Sri Lankan media professionals who have suffered in the name of their profession.

In the coming months we will be upping the ante and we are going to need your support more than ever. Please visit the new “donate” section on our website: it gives you many options to donate other things besides money. But of course we do also need money to continue the work we have started. So please also look at the back page of this newsletter and find out how to join our Friends of the Sri Lanka Campaign scheme. We are making this first issue available to all, but in future it will only go to our Friends – so if you want to continue to receive On the Record you need to demonstrate your friendship!

Thank you and all best wishes,

Edward.

Edward Mortimer CMGChair of the Advisory Council

in this issue…

Night of drama with Ice & Fire productions

Sri Lankan Media On the Ground

Sri Lanka Confidential looks at the deficiencies of media freedom

Bianca JaggerOn th

e Gro

und

Letter from the Chair

It is a very tough time to be a journalist in Sri Lanka. Just ask Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, the highly respected editor of the Jaffna-based Uthayan newspaper who was assaulted and beaten with iron bars by a gang of unidentified youths in late July. Or the Radio Netherlands journalists who were subjected to a “white van abduction” during their time in Sri Lanka. Or newspaper owner Lal Wickrematunge who was not the first member of his family to receive what amounted to a death threat in a personal phone call from the President of Sri Lanka.

From my time talking to journalists in Sri Lanka though, I know it is not these attacks that scare them into silence - terrifying as they are. Nor is it the constant threatening and shrill criticism of government apologists like Rajiva Wijesinha and their cyber supporters in the nationalist media.

It is the draining effect of watching their Government, year after year, learning all the

wrong lessons and getting more irrational by the day. What do you write about a government that promotes a man into the cabinet who ties civil servants to trees for coming into work late?

Faced with such odds a small group of brave grassroots Sri Lankans continue to work to get the truth out. There is the award winning citizen journalism project Groundviews, which continues to attract a very high calibre of writers - despite the Government’s intermittent attempts to block the site. Then there is the independent online newspaper Lanka e-news, still going strong despite numerous legal challenges, disappearances and having their office burnt to the ground. Then there is the new initiative Lanka Independent by Sonali Samarsinge Wickrematunge, Lasantha’s widow. Carrying on her husband’s vision, Lanka Independent brings independent news and a commitment to human rights to all Sri Lankans.

Never has the link between cricket and politics been so evident and so alarming as in the case of the 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, given by former Sri Lankan Cricket Captain Kumar Sangakkara on 4 July 2011.

Sanga became the first Cowdrey lecturer to receive a standing ovation since Desmond Tutu in 2008. The next day the Sri Lankan Minister of Sports ordered a report into the very address that won him the praise of his distinguished audience and applause from the international media.

So why the backlash?In describing the corruption and

malpractice within the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) administration, Sanga’s speech also highlights the malaise that afflicts governance and civil administration in Sri Lanka today: a lack of accountability, a propensity to discount minority aspirations and a callous disregard for the rule of law.

Corruption, bribery and partisan politics are widespread across all aspects of Sri Lankan society, not just cricket and it has lead to a strong culture of impunity replacing democracy and with it the freedom of expression and preservation of civil liberties and human rights.

Sangakkara is but one voice - but what a difference he has made with that one voice. His address has demonstrated that regardless of professional or cultural background, individuals can make a huge difference. How many more will join him and the few others that have spoken out before him? Not with any agenda or motive but simply the desire to restore democracy, transparency, accountability and liberty to all aspects of Sri Lanka’s civil society

On the 21 July the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice put on a successful benefit night at the Arcola Theatre showcasing Ice & Fire’s powerful production On the Record (the inspiration for the name of our new monthly newsletter!).

The play, using verbatim theatre, told the story of five journalists from Mexico, Sri Lanka, Russia, Israel and the US as they attempted to expose the truth amidst a background of state corruption and human rights abuses.

The production followed the story of Sri Lankan journalists, Lasantha Wickrematunge (played by Selva Rasalingam) and his brother Lal (played by Paul Bhattacharjee) and founders of the Sunday Leader –showcasing their courageous attempts to expose the corruption and human rights abuses committed under the leadership of Lasantha Wickrematunge’s one-time friend, President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Using testimony collected directly from Wickrematunge when the play’s co-writers, Christine Bacon and Noah Birksted-Breen met him in London, the production (and Rasalingam and Bhattacharjee’s adaptation) captures the pair’s infectious humour as they faced increasingly ridiculous censorship by the authorities.

After the show Wickrematunge’s widow, Sonali, addressed the audience in support of the campaign saying, “I am delighted that there is such a dedicated, truly non-partisan organisation championing rights, accountability and reconciliation.”

As demonstrated throughout this newsletter and in a recent report by the Sri Lanka Campaign entitled An Attack on Press Freedom intimidation, torture and abductions are increasingly used by the Sri Lankan Government to silence dissent by journalists. This becomes heartbreakingly apparent as the production heads towards its climax with Wickrematunge acknowledging the ever-increasing danger that surrounded him, making the decision to stand his ground and finally making the greatest sacrifice, his life.

We are delighted to welcome Fred Carver as our new Campaign Director. Fred joined us in April to help our conversion into a strong, robust campaigning organization that has the strength and capacity to take on the government of Sri Lanka.

Fred worked for five years in British politics, running elections and participating in local government, while all the time trying to escape onto a more global stage via research trips to the West Bank, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. As a postgraduate he studied the politics of South Asia at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and that - combined with a love of cricket - brought him to the Sri Lanka Campaign.

During a recent trip to Sri Lanka Fred began to familiarise himself with the situation on the ground through conversations from north to south with victims of torture, civil society leaders, journalists, rickshaw drivers, diplomats and street vendors.

His dream is to one day go back to a Sri Lanka where the street food is the same but the political culture is very different.

“Free media serves as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and stylinggel. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may

grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do sopublicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.”

Lasantha Wickrematunge

What we’ve been up to…Your Opinion…on freedom of expression A Night of Theatre

A welcome to our new director

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What is it about Freedom of Expression – the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds – that makes it a core human right?

Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, states “The freedom to speak and the

freedom to write are essential preconditions for the transition towards

democracy and good governance” – and though this is true, I think it comes down to something much simpler. If sharing ideas and information is forbidden then we are forced to live in a state of ignorance. Allowing civil society, allowing individuals access to independent information gives people the tools to decide for themselves. To governments shirking the responsibility of international accountability, governments determined to ensure it’s their version of history that’s written – freedom of expression is the greatest threat.

And as the wielders of this mighty responsibility, in a country where independent expression and human rights are taboo – journalists in Sri Lanka are a marked people.

34 media professionals murdered. 34 cases

unsolved. 62 Sri Lankan journalists forced into exile since 2009. No investigations. No justice.

Government officials use anti-terrorism legislation to claim traitorous behaviour on the part of media professionals not willing to tow the farcical policy line. The words of Ministers vilify journalists and echo so forcefully against the independent free press they incite harassment, physical attack and hatred of media professionals. And more often than not these attacks occur in heavily government controlled areas.

While simultaneously denying it exists to foreign media, Government officials are so secure in the culture of fear and impunity they’ve created, that Ministers and even the President feel no qualms at personally threatening members of the Press. On 19 July using tactics reminiscent of an Al Pacino movie, President Rajapakse warned Sunday Leader chairman Lal Wickrematunge “if you attack me personally, I will know how to attack you personally too.”, while his brother Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse publicly bemoaned the abolition of prison sentences for press offences

Sri Lanka is considered the 4th most dangerous country for journalists. Afghanistan, Russia, Columbia and Mexico are all considered less so. And now this affront to freedom of expression has taken to the international stage.

In July of this year two Radio Netherlands Wordwide reporters travelling in Jaffna were overheard questioning locals at a restaurant. Shortly thereafter they were

confronted by ten police officers, including the Chief of Police, who intimidated them into leaving. The following day they were attacked and robbed at gun point by a gang in a white van – the notorious symbol for the long arm of the state.

So how should this marked profession react? In a posthumously published article former Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge prophetically lamented, “No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces - and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. …Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories, and now especially the last.” But not all media professionals are ready to forego their lives for the sake of their profession and can we really ask them to? Further still access to heavily restricted areas are often provided in return for self censorship – never more apparent than in Charles Haviland’s piece for the BBC that only implicitly alluded to the government’s militarization of the north and barely touched the surface of the Tamil reaction to the “bombastic monument to the government’s war victory”. It is a treacherous line to walk; censorship with access; freedom with death. There is no signature at the end of this piece. But foreign media and especially influential media giants have a vital role to play in ensuring the safety and freedom of media professionals in Sri Lanka. Because if not them, then who? Please click here to support our campaign for Free Press in Sri Lanka

Sri LankaConfidentiaLKeeping the Press Free:

A Risky Business

From Bianca Jagger

Join us in the fight for:

Dear Reader,

It is a pleasure to be part of the first edition of the Sri Lanka Campaign’s new newsletter, On the Record. Since the Campaign was established in 2009 we have, among other things, pressured governments into boycotting a recent Sri Lankan military defence event and to make EU trade agreements dependent on improving human rights, and done our best to loosen the Sri Lanka Government’s control of the media.

However, as highlighted by the recent news (human rights defenders turning up dead, newspaper editors threatened or beaten, villagers forced from their homes to make way for multimillion pound developments they will see no benefit from), there is much, much more that needs to be done. The murder, torture and intimidation into silence of Sri Lankans who speak out against the government is much worse than most realise.

That is why I am asking you to show your concern about the future of Sri Lanka and its citizens by supporting the Campaign. The Sri Lankan Government has gone to great lengths to silence and rebuff any criticisms of its human rights record or allegations of war crimes (which have been so powerfully documented in the recent Channel 4 documentary, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields). But with your support we can continue to hold the government accountable and place pressure on the international community to do the same. Please help!

Bianca Jagger

Member of the Advisory CouncilFounder and Chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights FoundationCouncil of Europe Goodwill Ambassador

• The protection of freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights for all Sri Lankans, including media workers and human rights defenders. • Judicial independence and restoration of the rule of law. • An end to the culture of impunity via competent and thorough investigations into the murders and disappearances of all media professionals. • The implementation of a Freedom of Information Bill that complies with international and regional best practice. Join the campaign here.

To continue to hold the Government of Sri Lanka to account, we rely on the generosity of members of the public - people like you. We are not affiliated with any political or ethnic group inside or outside Sri Lanka, and we exist to fight for the rights of all those living in Sri Lanka - so for a Sri Lanka Campaign which is not in anybody else’s pocket - please dip into your own.

• Donate £2 a month and help provide a mobile phone for an independent journalist in Sri Lanka. • Donate £3 a month to provide the material to run a university group. • Donate £5 a month to pays for an internet connection so we can keep in touch with human rights defenders in fear for their lives.• Donate £10 a month to keep our website online.• Donate £20 a month to fund research into police torture in Sri Lanka.

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