What remains a good idea: Freedom of Expression in Sri Lanka

Sanjana HattotuwaEditor, Groundviews | TED Fellow Alumn

Post-war media “freedom”Especially for Tamil journalists

Focus on the State & sportsGovernment led infrastructure development

& cricket scores

Under-reported / Un-reportedThe human cost of development

Under-reported / UN-reported / ErasedInconvenient truths

IDPs of Seeniyamottai (September ’12), Rally against Weliveriya violence (August ’13), Aluthgama (June ’14)

Custodial murderGanesan Nimalaruban’s mother

State complicityIn religious extremism

Police shootingsCovering up State brutality

A necessary bifurcation post-warBetween patriots & traitors

Failure of MSMSupine, seeking favour, unprofessional, dependent on advertisements, under fire, risk averse

Pushback from State around New MediaNational Security Threats, Dogs, Terrorists, Murderers

How can technology help?Bearing witness within cycles of violence

Recording for posterityWordpress, Blogger,

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube,

Vimeo, Bundlr, Storify, Vimeo,

SoundCloud, Flickr, Infogr.am, Typeform, Google Maps, Google

Earth, Timeline.js, Tiki Toki, Ushahidi

CrowdMap, OpenStreetMap, SMS, Mobile Apps, HTML5

A safe spaceCivility, agree to disagree

Curation

• ~7.3 million words over 50,000 comments

• ~5.8 million words over 2,900 articles • no break in eight years

TwitterFrom peripheral to primary channel of news

Recording human rights#unlk at 22nd HRC sessions

FacebookReaching over 26,000 and beyond

The end of warZero civilian casualties vs. ground realities

Mass gravesFrom 2009 to end of 2011

Bearing witnessImpeachment of Chief Justice

Moving ImagesPhotography to capture change | www.movingimages.asia

MediatedUsing art to shape perceptions |

saskiafernandogallery.com/exhibitionsmain.php?id=22.

30 Years AgoNew media to capture Black July anti-Tamil pogrom | www.30yearsago.asia

Short & SweetUsing fiction to interrogate a violent past

Citizen archivistArchiving the ephemeral for posterity | http://sitesatrisksl.wordpress.com

• Army (1)

• Berghof Foundation (2)

• CaFFE – Election Monitoring (1)

• Citizens Commission (1)

• Citizens.lk (1)

• COI (1)

• Colombo Art Biennale 2014 (1)

• Colomboscope (1)

• Cost of War (1)

• CPA (1)

• Dept. of Census and Statistics (1)

• Development (1)

• Eastern Revival (1)

• FMM (1)

• Groundviews (1)

• IIGEP (2)

• InfoShare (1)

• Jayantha Dhanapala (1)

• JVP (1)

• LLRC Action Plan (1)

• LLRC NAP (1)

• LTTE Dept. of IR (1)

• LTTE Peace Secretariat (2)

• MCNS (1)

• Media at risk (1)

• Milinda Moragoda (1)

• National Freedom Front (1)

• National Housing Policy (1)

• NESOHR (1)

• Official Languages Commission (1)

• PACT (1)

• Political parties (2)

• Regaining Sri Lanka (1)

• SCOPP (3)

• SLPI & SLCJ (1)

• Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF) (1)

• Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (1)

• Tamil National Alliance (1)

• Tsunami (1)

• UNF-LTTE Peace Process (1)

• Vikalpa (1)

• Blogs of Army commanders during 2009

Their stories matterTech secondary

Thank youAll photos via Vikalpa Flickr, www.flickr.com/vikalpasl