Media 'responsible' for police abuses

Victims of abuses and media activists have accused polarised media of partly responsible for the alleged serious abuses by the police and security forces.

The public in the south have reacted very angrily after recent incidents of two young people dying while in police custody in Angulana, Moratuwa and a brutal assault on a student in Malabe.
The wife and the son of the former director of Colombo Crime Division, and a group of police officers are accused of abducting and brutally assaulting Nipuna Ramanayake, a young IT student.

At least 18 police personnel and the family members of Senior Superintendant of Police (SSP) Vaas Gunawardena are currently detained in custody.

Sinhala language newspapers and electronic media have widely publicised the recent abuses by the police in the south.

“I don’t think it is the police to be accused,” Chandana Sirimalwatta, the editor of Lanka Sinhala weekly told BBC Sandeshaya.

“The government, including the head of state, has been giving out signals to the police to the effect that they won’t be punished for any abuse.”

However, many media activists are of the view that media, Sinhala nationalist newspapers in particular, are also responsible for the breakdown of law and order in the south.

'Terrorism' vs 'democracy'

“During the war between the government forces and the LTTE, nationalist Sinhala media spread the ideology that all Tamils are LTTE supporters,” says Rohitha Bashana Abeywardene.

Mr. Abeywardena is the spokesman for the Journalist for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), a recently formed exiled media workers' organisation.

“When five Tamil students were killed in January 2006, Sinhala media either tried not to report the incident or to portray the victims as LTTE supporters.”

Dr. Manoharan, father of one of the young victims in Trincomalee, agrees.

“I don’t think media in the south did justice to my son,” he told BBC Sinhala service.

Irida Lanka, a newspaper affiliated with Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), has been very supportive of the government’s military offensive against the LTTE.
“Our newspaper adopted a policy of supporting the unitary state of Sri Lanka and we could not support any anti-democratic militancy,” says Mr. Sirimalwatta.

“And the security forces were carrying out operations to wipe out terrorism in this country,” he said.


Bindunuwewa massacre

That approach by the Sinhala media outlets, says Sunanda Deshapriya of Free Media Movement (FMM), encouraged security forces and the police to continue their abuses in the south.

“I am very happy that they report the incidents in the south," he said.

"But the same media did not bother to carry a detailed report by the human rights commission that clearly pointed the finger on the police when a group of young Tamils were massacred in Bindunuwewa."
26 young suspected former LTTE members were killed by a mob of a few hundred Sinhalese villagers armed with knives, rods and torches while the inmates were sleeping in Bindunuwewa detention centre in October 2004.
The Sri Lankan Army detachment that was posted there had been withdrawn the previous day, for unknown reasons.
After a years-long investigations and trials, all of the accused, including police officers, were acquitted and released.
Mr. Deshapriya says the attitude by the Sinhala media is a reflection of Tamil media coverage under the LTTE.
Tamil media
“During the ceasefire between the LTTE and the government, we carried out a research in the LTTE-controlled areas,” he said.
“Tamil newspapers were behaving as if no murder was carried out by the LTTE. While the Tamil media was accusing the government for every abuse, the Sinhala media were accusing the government for every murder and abduction.”
Dr. Manoharan says apart from the institutional nationalism, some journalists were intimidated by the parties not to report the truth in a conflict situation.
SS Raja, who accurately reported the killing of five Tamil students according to Dr. Manoharan, was gunned down within few weeks.
The medical doctor who has treated many Sinhala security force personnel in Trincomalee has since fled the country with other family members due to fear for their life.
“I am very sad to hear incidents of police abuses in the south. But if the media in the south accurately reported the killing in Trincomalee, these unfortunate incidents would have been avoided.”

- BBC