Ranil applies brakes on media freedom

Ranil Wickremesinghe’s views on media freedom are two-faced.  One, when in the opposition and one when in power.  One sports a smile and the other a scowl.  This two-facedness, if you will, is not Mr Wickremesinghe’s preserve.  It’s part of the political culture.  In general those in power mimic those they replaced and those who are replaced mimic those who replaced them.  On most counts. 

 

"I will teach journalists a good lesson!"

It is typical for the Opposition to champion media freedom and for those in power to curb the same, directly or indirectly.  It is also typical for those in power, especially those who feel insecure, to vilify critics by claiming that they are serving the interest of ‘the enemy’ (variously defined of course).   During the Rajapaksa regime those who criticized the government were labeled traitors in the pay of separatists or foreign powers intent on dividing the country.  During the regime of Chandrika Kumaratunga critics were called ‘Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists’ or ‘war-mongers’.   Today’s critics are called ‘Rajapaksa loyalists’. 

So there’s really no ‘venasa’ (change) in Ranil Wickremesinghe’s occasional attacks on and not-so-veiled threats against journalists and media houses.   Not too long ago he referred to a journalist as a dog and called for the control of certain ‘dog-media-institutions’ thereby clearly indicating that he’s moved from good-governance to dog-governance; quite unbecoming, especially for a man who his wide-eyed loyalists consider ‘a brain and nothing else’ (thanikara molayak). 

Just the other day he ranted once again, targeting his longtime bugbear, the genial and quite nondescript editor of the Daily Mirror, Kesara Abeywardena.  This is what he said:

"Last Monday's Daily Mirror called for the removal of Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. I know the editor of the Daily Mirror. He once wrote saying I too should be removed from UNP leadership. We will have to see what we should do if he does not resign from his post. He is possessed by Mahinda Rajapaksa. Daily Mirror carried anti Tamil, anti Muslim articles. Now they want ministers to resign. We must teach journalists a good lesson."

What was Kesara’s crime, though?  Did he publish a news item where he craftily threw in a quote by some political maverick making a speech in an unrelated context, selectively extracting the line ‘Mangala should be removed?’  Did he write an editorial calling for the Foreign Minister’s removal?  No.  All he did was to publish a political commentary titled “Why Mangala must exit and Amunugama must enter”.   The columnist, Dayan Jayatilleka, to be fair, makes a cogent argument for the Foreign Minister’s removal.

Dayan has his preferred political outcomes.  His commentary is informed by the same.  He is clever with words and he knows enough history, political science and sociology to make his conclusions sound like they are the only ones that are logical.  There have been times when I’ve disagreed with Dayan, but on this occasion I concur with him totally.  But let’s assume that he is way off the mark. Let’s assume that he is just making a case for an outcome that serves his political objectives.  The fact is, however, that his is only a comment. 

A comment, Mr Wickremesinghe.  It’s free, Mr Wickremesinghe.  He is offering an opinion on facts which he has not distorted.  Weighted maybe, but that’s allowed Mr Wickremesinghe.  You should know this.  Editors, especially liberal editors, reserve space for regular columnists from across the political spectrum.  Kesara gives space to people who are rabidly opposed to Dayan Jayatilleka and who regularly trot out what I would call nauseatingly servile pieces about your administration, Mr Wickremesinghe.  I don’t know of any occasion when someone objecting to such views called him names and declared that Kesara would be taught a lesson. 

What does Ranil Wickremesinghe want, I wonder.  The entire media to come together and call him ‘saviour’, salaam him at every turn, sing hosannas and crack down hard on his detractors? Is that the ‘media freedom’ that this good-governance government envisaged, never mind what was promised? 

Ranil has issued a threat in no uncertain terms.  He’s basically told Kesara ‘Resign or else!’  He’s read the riot act and he has the riot police ready. That’s the message he’s given and not just to Kesara but anyone who dares question his judgment.  Well, speaking of judgment, he was found lacking when he appointed Arjuna Mahendran as Governor, Central Bank.  He did fire some shots at those who criticized Mahendran, ably supported of course by his loyal sidekick Lakshman Kiriella, the Minister of Higher Education whose judgment too has been called to question after it was found that he had appointed dozens of advisors with hardly any educational qualifications and even tried to justify the use of public funds to pay the salaries of these ‘party loyalists’.  Ranil’s tirades did not stop the media.  It did not stop commentators.  Arjuna Mahendran had to go.  At this rate, the call will not be for the exit of a bad-judgment-appointee but the appointer himself, Ranil should understand.  Arrogance was a key factor that saw the ‘exiting’ of Mahinda Rajapaksa.  This too he should not forget. 

He says that the Daily Mirror has carried anti-Tamil and anti-Muslim articles?  Maybe that’s how he reads and maybe that’s an indication of his ability to read, but then again others can say that the Daily Mirror has carried ‘anti-Sinhala’ and ‘anti-Buddhist’ articles.    After all, the Daily Mirror gives as much or more space to anti-Sinhala and anti-Buddhist commentators or, if you want to be sweet about it, those who attack Sinhala and Buddhist extremists and slip in crass generalizations to attack the entire collective.  Hasn’t Wickremesinghe seen any of these pieces?  

Those who know Wickremesinghe’s ways will not be surprised at this manifest inability to stomach any criticism and especially calling his judgment to question.  What might surprise a lot of people is the deafening silence of the bleeding-heart media-rights advocates who could barely hold their tongues at the slightest perceived wrong done to journalists.  What happened to the Editors’ Guild?  What of the Free Media Movement?  What of their lords and ladies abroad who regurgitate their whines in international forums and fire off strongly worded missives to anyone who might be willing to listen?  How about the rights-bloc (shall we call them?), those who cheered the yahapaalanists all the way?  How about those self-righteous above-them-all columnists who rant and rave about Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism (but are quiet on Tamil, Muslim and Christian varieties) in the Daily Mirror and elsewhere who also talk about media freedom?  How about Dr Ranga Kalansuriya?  How many such tirades from Wickremesinghe will it take for them to wake up or will that never happen because they are simple in pretend-slumber?  

Let’s stop there.  There’s no point doing the horage-ammagen-pena-ahana number (asking the crook’s mother about the crook’s whereabouts). 

Let’s get back to Ranil Wickremesinghe.  On the 16^th of May, 2004 the ‘Sunday Observer’ published an article titled ‘Move over Ranil, your time’s up’.   It was a political comment.  It was an exit call.  Wickremesinghe didn’t say a word.  He didn’t call for the particular editor’s blood.  He didn’t say ‘we must teach journalists a good lesson’.  He was quite the lamb.  He was in the Opposition then.  Says a lot doesn’t it? 

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer.  Blog: malindawords.blogspot.com.  Email: malindasenevi@gmail.com.  Twitter: malindasene.

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Prostituting media freedom

Media freedom, like all freedoms, is not something one can talk about in absolutist language.  There are always caveats.  There are always conditions.  There are lines imposed and there are limits that come from within, the latter kind being two fold, those birthed by fear and those that are spawned by ideological or political preferences. 

For all the rhetoric about absolute freedom of expression and objectivity in reportage and comment, the truth is that everyone defines for him/herself an operational comfort zone.  There’s a lot of over-focus on pet peeves and a studious look-askance when friend or chosen ideology slips up.   

Those who disagree are probably blissfully ignorant or consciously deceitful.  

That said, there is nothing to say that the freedoms that do exist are adequate or those that don’t are not worth fighting for.  In short, things can always be better.

We live in a world that is made of surveillance. This world is people by humans and not gods. As such they are prone to error.  Systems may appear robust but there never impregnable. ‘9/11’ showed us that.  Wikileaks showed us that. There will always be people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.  There have been and will be the likes of Bradley Manning.  There will also be a Callum Macrae and Frances Harrison who in interpretive sleight of hand will string together fact and fiction, discolor by editing out context, frill with overindulgence in conjecture and such.  Only an informed, alert and intelligent public can sift fact from fiction, weed out ideological and political insert, and get something close to the true picture.  

We live in a country that was a veritable media freedom horror story.  Those who are old enough or are interested enough about history will know what the 1980s were like.  They would know what kind of media culture existed during the Chandrika Kumaratunga regime.  Few would not be aware of the constraints inevitably imposed by a war of the kind necessitated by the brand of terrorism unleashed by the LTTE.  

These are better times.  But times can be infinitely better, this should also be recognized.  While facts don’t bear out the horror stories trotted out by those who want easy passage to greener pastures or are experts at manufacturing lie for bucks, it is also true that the post-conflict media culture has been marked subtle forms of control.   

Several media houses have been purchased by persons close to the political leadership of the country.  That’s ‘business’, and loyalty in commerce is related to tangible benefits.  Politicians can be voted out, businesses can fail; the one does not result in the other.  Loyalties change hands with regime-change.

There have also been instances of journalists being intimidated by politicians.  Some have been beaten up.  These violations cannot be laid on the door of the rulers, following the adage ‘innocent until proven guilty’, but conspicuous sloth and constituent hitting-brick-wall in investigation raise questions. The longer they remain unanswered the more suspicious of those in power one becomes. 

Even if we lived in a free media paradise it is advisable to be wary, to be alert and to watch out for even the slightest erosion in freedom because things can change pretty fast.  This is why a courageous, skilled and innovative journalistic fraternity, while important no doubt, does not constitute sufficient insurance against limiting maneuvers.  This is why there are trade unions. This is why journalists should organize themselves. 

For all this, if journalists themselves are short-cut wizards without ethics or integrity, look for person gain in the name of the collective, and are willing victims of all kinds of manipulators seeking to sabotage post-conflict gains, they do more harm to media freedom than the worst enemy of these very freedoms.

The Free Media Movement (FMM) has an excellent brand.  It has, through the crooked deals of Sunanda Deshapriya and by seeking out and wallowing in a culture of NGOism where workshops, seminars, foreign tours and such fatten wallets, severely compromised the effort to secure freedoms won and expand the dimensions of these gains. 

It is now clear that the Free Media Movement is a virtual half-way house for all kinds of charlatans, a meeting place for thieves, liars and other miscreants.  Its dealings with Jacqui Park, Asia Pacific Director of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are not shady; they are downright dishonest and amount to in-your-face fraud.  When a person with the designation Park owns openly violates immigration laws with the full knowledge of the FMM and when the FMM Convener Sunil Jayasekera utters falsehoods to defend this miscreant, the FMM ceases to be legitimate. Sadly, this is not ‘new’.  The Park-Jayasekera combine is but the current avatar of an FMM-IFJ combine ready to defraud, ready to lie. 

Journalists don’t need such people to fight for their rights.  Given the international stature that the FMM has secured for itself and considering the hanky-panky culture it has embraced, it has done and continues to do more disservice to media freedom than any government that wants to keep journalists under threat.  Add to this the fact that other journalist organizations are either thick as thieves with the FMM or are fighting for a piece of the pie, the fight for media freedom devolves to individuals journalists. 

It has come to a point where a journalist may well turn to the FMM or similar outfits and say, ‘please don’t speak for me, thank you.’ 

msenevira@gmsil.com

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Free Media Movement Busted

• ·         IFJ’s Jacqui Park violated immigration law 19 times
• ·         Convenor Sunil Jayasekera lies about Jacqui Park

Director Asia-Pacific Region of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Jacqui Park, shortly after being deported from Sri Lanka, has tweeted her sentiments thus: a) ‘Thanks to Aust FM Bishop for raising issue with SL FM.  Thanks to Aust High Comm in SL too for crucial support,’ b) ‘Good to be home. It was wonderful to have so much support from Australian and SL colleagues,’ and c) Just transiting in Singapore and please to be on my way home with Jane. Thanks for the support, especially our brave Sri Lankan friends’.  In one of these she has hash-tagged ‘pressfreedom’. ABC News, Australia, writing thereafter, waxes eloquent about Park being queried over her ‘work’ in Sri Lanka.  We shall get to that later. 

What is the context?  Jacqui Park arrived in Sri Lanka on a tourist visa along with a colleague Jane Worthington, but was not doing any sightseeing. She was attending a workshop titled ‘Freedom of Expression in Post-War Sri Lanka: Challenges and Way Forward’.  It was jointly organized by the IFJ and the Free Media Movement.  She was detained and questioned and found to have violated immigration laws of the country.  A person of her age with all the traveling she has done could not have been ignorant about visa types and which types permit or forbids what.  This was not a one-off misdemeanor.  Park has visited Sri Lanka on 20 occasions, 19 of which were work-related, each time on a tourist visa.  She is therefore a multiple and even compulsive offender.     

Lankaenews claims that the two IFJ workers and the FMM were ‘betrayed’.  No mention of violating immigration law.  AFP claimed that an ‘international media rights activist’ was detained.  The AFP report was heavily editorialized with a lot of claims and little substantiation.

APF is at pains to paint Park as some kind of media activism heroine intent on investigating alleged war crimes.  AFP has quoted FMM Convenor, Sunil Jayasekera: ‘She was meeting with us at a hotel in Colombo while on holiday; she was not engaging in any work as such but was meeting with friends she had made over many years.’

It is strange that the AFP story appeared without any reference to tangible proof that compromised Jayasekera’s ‘holiday’ statement; another website, www.srilankamirror.lk accusing ‘security forces’ (it was immigration authorities) crashing the AFP-IFJ party, carried pictures of the banner announcing the collaborative nature of the exercise.  It is strange that AFP didn’t see reason to ask Jayasekera the obvious question.  When ‘The Nation’ asked Jayasekera, he first said ‘she was not here for the workshop’.  Later, when Colombo Telegraph released the leaked emails, Jayasekra said ‘I don’t want to comment; I’ve said it all to the CID’.

While the IFJ is a trade union collective, Park is but a paid employee. AFP is yet to report on the violation of immigration law by Park and her companion. Lankaenews is a rogue outfit, little better than a gossip column, but Daily Mirror and AFP are not.  Their corrections or refusal to correct will also speak to media ethics or lack thereof.    As for Australia’s ABC News, how it is that their ‘story’ does not mention the fact that Park and Worthington had violated immigration regulations in Sri Lanka and indeed the former had done so on 18 other occasions.  Let’s not talk about the racism of Australia’s current immigration policy regime, but if some alien arrived in Australia 18 times, would ABC find fault with immigration and security authorities querying the individual on what on earth he/she is up to?  If that person had a media ID, would ABC say, ‘Oh ok, we understand, he/she is above board and should not be detained or questioned’? 

Sunil Jayasekera’s statements (to the Daily Mirror and AFP) are interesting.  This is an event co-organized by the IFJ and FMM, with the former probably chipping in with the money.  Jacqui Park’s email correspondence, leaked to and published by www.colombotelegraph.com, clearly indicate that she was not going to the elephant orphanage in Pinnawela or was planning to wallow in herbal baths in Hikkaduwa. 

For the record, Jacqui Park had penned ‘Sightseeing and holidaying’ in the ‘Reasons for visit’ box on her Disembarkation Card which she submitted to immigration authorities in Katunayake.  She could, technically, be ‘holidaying’ at Janaki Hotel although there’s not much to do by way of ‘sightseeing’ on Fife Road, Colombo 5 and got away with it too, except that that’s where an event her employer co-organized was being held.  

The leaked emails clearly indicate that it was a work-related event and one in which she looked forward to discussions with IFJ’s members in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA) and the Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions (FMETU). The FMM is only an affiliate since it is not a trade union.

It is indeed laughable to think that the regional director of the sponsoring outfit would be in Sri Lanka during the event and not be part of the proceedings.  Park has since confessed that she had indeed come for the workshop.  Jayasekera, in his statements to relevant officials had admitted the same.  In other words, he knew when Park was going to be in Sri Lanka and why she was visiting.  He knew it was not a ‘holiday’.  Jacqui knew who paid for her ticket (IFJ) and it is unlikely that Sunil was ignorant about the fact.  The Daily Mirror, AFM and Lankaenews are yet to publish these confessions for reasons best known to them. 

Sunil Jayasekera, like many media activists are on the JFJ’s dole-list; obtaining money for all kinds of reasons.  Park herself has once claimed that funds allocated to obtain ‘safe houses’ have been used by recipients to paint their own houses! 

Sunil Jayasekera, it must be remembered, heads an outfit that has conducted dozens of seminars and workshops on media ethics, good governance, transparency and accountability, training people on how to be better and demand better from the powers that be on the above subjects. 

He is, moreover, Co-Convenor of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, which is part of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA).  One of his predecessors, Sunanda Deshapriya was also at one time associated with the CPA. He was forced to leave after it was found he had defrauded that organization.  Interestingly, on that occasion, the monies pilfered had been used to purchase an air ticket for this same Jacqui Park.  The CPA also advocates transparency, accountability and such, far more strongly than the FMM.  Time will tell whether or not the CPA will continue to associate persons who have aided and abetted illegal activity, feigned ignorance thereafter and finally acknowledged deceit and complicity. 

It is also revealed that at least on one occasion, Jacqui Park had accepted a cash payment from the CPA, again after a workshop at the same Janaki Hotel, Colombo, Sunanda Desharpiya handing over US$ 250.   Being a paid employee of the IJF, Park cannot receive ‘payment’ for work she is already paid for.  It is strange that Jayasekera appears to be ignorant of these kinds of transactions or finds it ‘ok’; but Park, then again, ‘is an old friend’, he has acknowledged.   

The emails leaked to Colombo Telegraph clearly indicate that the IFJ, for all its moral posturing, is fraught with intrigue associated with election-rigging (!), misuse of funds, selective partnering which raises questions over integrity of the membership etc.  To call employees of the IFJ and especially ones who have been caught sneaking into the country ‘media freedom activists’ amounts to a championing of the worst kind of chicanery and is an affront to all honest media activists.    

It is not just the FMM that has ‘treated’ Park well.  She has said during questioning that she has been in Sri Lanka before on work commissioned by many multilateral organizations, including the European Commission, UNICEF and UNESCO.  She has once attended a program organized by the Sri Lanka College of Journalists where she spoke on journalistic ethics, no less.  It is incredible that these organizations had thought fit for Park to come on an upon-arrival visa (tourist) and then engage in ‘work’.  Park also claims that she was once invited to grace an awards ceremony organized by the SLWJA, FMM and FMETU.  In light of her recently revealed illegal activity, all these organizations stand squarely indicted, more so because of their long history of shouting slogans and holding placards demanding decency, integrity, transparency, accountability etc.  If someone were to say ‘start with integrity’, they would not have a leg to stand on.

The Free Media Movement has compromised itself many times over by the shady activities of its former Convenor, Sunanda Deshapriya – he is yet to submit project reports requested from him many years ago and is charged with fraud by way of double-billing, among other scandalous self-payments.  His successors seem not to have learned anything from all that. 

A spokesperson for the SLWJA has claimed that reporting the Park-Jayasekera matter has put other journalists at risk.  Nothing puts a journalist at risk than the journalist compromising him/herself.  If the SLWJA and other media collectives want to shy away from truth, it can retire terms like ‘accountability’, ‘transparency’ and ‘integrity’, and just say, ‘we are in this for the bucks that may come our way or which we may be able to skim off’. 

Finally, since we in the age of social media, when Jacqui Park is done tweeting her relief and gratitude, will she talk about her sneaky ways, deceit, fraud and how these sit with her ‘media advocacy’? 

msenevira@gmail.com

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The FMM: thick with thieves

FMM: nice logo, nice name but substance? Oh dear!

The Free Media Movement (FMM) mandates itself, among other things, to stand up for the rights of media personnel.  This is good.  Recently, the FMM took issue with sections of the state media for what it claims was a distortion of what had transpired in Geneva where former FMM Convener, Sunanda Deshapriya was alleged to have been put in his place by the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed. Deshapriya claimed that nothing of the sort had happened. 

The FMM, in a statement released by its present Convener, Sunil Jayasekara, has condemned what it terms are ‘false allegations against press freedom and human rights activists’, citing the above issue, and states that it awaits a response from the Government of the Maldives. 

In general, if there is some vilification or character assassination of a journalist via the publication of falsehood, it is certainly incumbent on organization espousing media freedom and decency to step up and object.  Indeed, even if the aggrieved party has no connection with the media or human rights, misrepresentation is not something that should be condoned.  In this sense, I salute the FMM for taking this stand, provided of course that Deshapriya’s version is accurate. 

I have some problems with the statement, though.  First and foremost, Sunanda Deshapriya is not really a journalist.  He is, all things considered, nothing more than a propagandist.  That’s legitimate of course, even though I for one would hesitate before agreeing to be mouthpiece for terrorists or those who vilify the country of my birth without any or very little substantiation of  allegation, especially if it can hurt my fellow citizens who paid for my education and many other conveniences.    He is not a ‘human rights activist’ as claimed, but a disingenuous prankster masquerading as one.  If the FMM wanted to be taken seriously, they would have hesitated in dishing out unwarranted character certificates to this shady individual. 

Now if Bada Mahinda, Kudu Noor or someone other underworld character’s human rights were violated, one would expect an organization that takes such issues seriously to call foul.  One would also expect that organization to quality their intervention by referring to their criminal records, just because the world is not black and white and because blank cheques can be abused. 

Sunanda Deshapriya is not your mafia king or minion of course, although he has in a white-collared way aided and abetted many crimes against humanity.  What is most strange about the FMM statement is the strange reluctance to qualify support for the man, considering that he is a known racketeer and has a proven track record of stealing money.  Paikiasothy Saravanamauttu, himself a navel-gazer when it comes to questions about financial ‘mismanagement’, has in his (Saravanamuttu’s) cute way hoofed out Deshapriya from the Centre for Policy Alternatives (for showing ‘lack of clarity’ in reporting on funds utilized).  Sunil Jayasekara can’t be ignorant about all this since the FMM was working very closely with the CPA at the time.

Most unpardonable, however, is the FMM’s absolute silence on the fact that Sunanda Deshapriya has point-black refused to cooperate with an investigation into alleged financial mismanagement (read ‘pilfering’) while he was that organization’s Convener.  The FMM has cited (and this is pathetic) lack of funds to carry out a proper investigation in Deshapriya’s misdoings.  I have offered to find the Rs. 1 million that the FMM has said would be required for such an exercise.  They’ve chosen the time-honoured method of sweeping under the carpet, the very crime they often accuse state agencies of indulging in. 

The way they’ve framed their objections in this statement shows that they have no quarrel with Deshapriya.  It raises the legitimate question that perhaps the current leadership of the FMM, Jayasekara and Udaya Kalupathirana (Ex-Co member of the FMM supposed to have been present in Geneval with Deshapriya) included, needs to sit on moves to investigate Deshapriya because they too have skeletons in their respective cupboards.

Jayasekara states: ‘[b]oth Mr. Deshapriya and Mr. Kalupathirana have conveyed to the FMM that they are in possession of a complete recording on audio-tape of the side-event which proves that these stories are false’.  While the meticulous precautions taken are certainly laudable, it is indeed strange that Jayasekara didn’t think fit to ask Deshapriya to furnish (along with these tapes) all records of all projects he was involved in or handled while he was in the FMM, especially those relevant to the management of funds, receipt books included. 

The FMM is giving Sunanda Deshapriya a break.  Is this because the current leadership of the FMM and its immediate predecessors need a break themselves with respect to who did what with the millions that came into the organization’s bank accounts? 

Jayasekara says, somberly, ‘The importance of this incident is that GOSL has dragged a head of a neighboring country into attacking press freedom activists. In FMM’s opinion this is a matter that requires serious consideration.’  The FMM has not really cared about this country and neither has Deshapriya.  This sudden concern for country-image, as implied in the above statement, is surprising, therefore, but nevertheless noteworthy.  But why bother about inter-galactic issues when there’s a lot of muck in the backrooms of this world, in this sense the FMM’s account sheets?

Jayasekara and this Kalupathirana are no babes in the woods, pampered with soothers stuck in their mouths.  They are adults and one presumes, know the basics when it comes to what’s decent and what’s not.  They know the difference between small change and the kinds of ‘change’ that’s allegedly been pilfered by Deshapriya.  They know that Deshapriya’s continued reluctance to furnish financial records indicates guilt.  And yet, they have studiously kept mum on all this.  They agitate for the Right to Information, but are keeping their books closed.  Why? 

It is good to defend the freedom of expression.  It is good to call for the truth. It is good to condemn misrepresentation, even though in this case the ‘victim’ is, as Saddam Hussein might say the ‘Mother of all Misrepresentation’.  Or ‘mother something else,’ did I hear someone quip?  It is not ‘all good’ when you go out and stand with a known thief and one who stands accused and is in all likelihood guilty of robbing one’s own organization.  It is not about standing for the principle of ‘truth’ when one deliberately leaves out the thieving and lying part of the story. 

Sunil Jayasekara, Kalupathirana and all the ladies and gentlemen of the FMM have indicted themselves.  They have no one else to blame but themselves for the sorry state that the FMM finds itself in today.  It is never too late in the day to come right.  The rank refusal to do so indicates happy complicity in the transgressions of a swindler.  I don’t know if they were ‘thick-as-thieves’ with Sunanda Deshapriya but this statement coupled with Kalupathirana baby-sitting Deshapriya in Geneva and thereafter demonstrates that the more appropriate descriptive is ‘thick-with-thieves’. 

The FMM could have turned over a new leaf, but it looks like it’s stuck in the old leaves (of a book that Deshapriya will not make public).  Sad. 

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On freedom of expression a la Sunanda Deshapriya

Sunanda Deshapriya: Hoofed out of the CPA for pilfering funds (CPA called it 'Clarity-Lack')

Sunanda Deshapriya is reported to have been snubbed in Geneva when offering his two cents’ worth subsequent to the screening of ‘Lies Agreed Upon’, a rebuttal to the inglorious Channel 4 production, ‘Sri Lanka Killing Fields’.  Given the man’s fondness for bucks, one can only wonder how much he got for this two-cent interjection, but I doubt he expected the earful he received from the President of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed.

Deshapriya, whose track record warrants the insertion of an extra ‘a’ in his name with a hyphen separating the a’s, in case people have forgotten, was hoofed out of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) for doing things that ‘lacked clarity’ (the sanitized term for ‘theft’ preferred by the CPA, which, by the way continues to remain silent about allegations of financial hanky-panky and keeps things under wraps despite moralistic posturing about transparency).  In Geneva, however, it was not about bucks, but patriotism (of all things!).

Deshapriya is reported to have asked Nasheed what right he had to speak about Sri Lanka.  The Maldivian President had informed Deshapriya that not only does he visit Sri Lanka for medical treatment, but is fluent in Sinhala and very well informed about things and processes in the country.  He added that it is generally expected of citizens to defend their countries and not hobnob with the enemy. 

Well, Sunanda does much more than hobnob in the current incarnation of his mercenary persona, but that’s not really news.  What caught my attention was his question to Nasheed. 

The implication of the question is that non Sri Lankans don’t have any right to talk about Sri Lankans.  Now this man, who calls himself a ‘journalist’ (and a senior one at that!) and is described as such by ill-informed ‘journalists’ such as Sara Nic, seems to have forgotten that what applies to Nasheed applies to others as well.  So let’s play with the idea.

I am imagining Sunanda telling off people like Susan Rice, Navi Pillai, Louis Arbour, David Miliband, Bernard Kouchner, Robert O Blake, Barack Obama, Ban ki-Moon, the jokers he appointed to conjure a ‘reality’ about this country, Patricia Butenis and other former Sri Lankans now happily domiciled and ‘citizened’ in other countries.  In fact I am imagining Sunanda standing before a mirror and engaging in finger-pointing. 

Sunanda to Sunanda-MI (Mirror Image):  you have by your admission (to Sarah Nic) admitted that your stories (good word-choice, by the way) are not ‘flesh and blood’, meaning they have no substance; you’ve robbed money from the CPA; for all your talk of transparency and accountability, you continue to balk when asked to submit relevant documents pertaining to financial matters in the Free Media Movement during your stewardship as ‘Convenor’.  What right do you have to talk about Sri Lanka?

Sunanda-MI to Sunanda: you are one to talk, brother:  have you forgotten how you always pandered to the LTTE’s agenda, whitewashing in any way possible its crimes against humanity?

Sunanda looks at the mirror.  The mirror-image looks back. They hang their heads down in shame, as though on cue or on account of a sudden bout of self-realization.

Sunanda will be Sunanda and that’s fine with me.  What worries me is that those who took over the Free Media Movement continue to enjoy sweeping things under the carpet.  They know that Sunanda is guilty of double-billing-pilferage. They know that he suppressed documents relevant to an investigation into financial fraud.  They’ve said a proper investigation would be too costly, i.e. ‘at least 1 million’.  I offered to find that amount (IF they can’t get a pro-decency funding agency to help them).  Not a word from the FMM. 

Maybe the FMM is speechless, which is pretty sad considering that ‘media’ is its middle name.  Maybe it’s just that touching Sunanda would force the current leadership to submit itself to similar touching.  Maybe they are as ticklish as Sunanda is.  It is all sad.  As I’ve pointed out (see ‘Does the FMM love old wine,’ in the Daily Mirror of September 15, 2011: http://print.dailymirror.lk/opinion1/49866.html) my only concern is that advocacy organizations that engage in odd operations only make true advocacy difficult. Sunil Jayasekera seems to have lost his voice.  I hope he finds it.  If not, he might end up in Geneva or some other part of Europe or North America having conversations with his mirror image.  On the other hand, considering what a great career Sunanda has made out of mis-journalizing, that might be a mouth-watering prospect.  

As for Sunanda Deshapriya, he could release evidence of tossing to other foreigners (friends included) the question he put to the President of Maldives.  Will he? Naah!

[Courtesy, Daily News, September 16, 2011]

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On Sara Nics’ simplistic delve into South Asia ‘complexities’

Sara Nics is a new member of the South Asia Wired team. That’s how Radio Netherlands Worldwide profiles her.   The nutshell-version adds that Sara, ‘as a multi-media journalist, Sara has reported from the frosty forests of the Great North Woods, the hallowed halls of Oxford, the sewage strewn footpaths of Kenya's Kibera, the cold waters of the Gulf of Maine, and the green hills of Uganda’.  Sara is supposed to be ‘happy to explore the complexities of South Asia’!
  

‘What a privileged region we are,’ I muttered to myself.  ‘So undeserving,’ I added. 

I don’t know when Sara Nics began trying to unravel South Asian complexities, but her piece about media freedom in Sri Lanka does indicate that the person-blurb is spot on with respect to at least one element: she is ‘new’. 

Who does this wide-eyed radio journalist pick to interview on the subject of media freedom but the man who has harmed media rights advocacy the most, Sunanda Deshapriya.  His long association with the Free Media Movement (FMM) and happy status as the go-to-guy on all issues pertaining to media rights, gave him profile, yes, but what Nics is clearly clueless about the man.

Deshapriya is a known rogue, who was hoofed out of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) for pilfering funds (the CPA, itself under a cloud for shady financial operations called it ‘lack of clarity’ but doesn’t have the guts to come out and tell the public what was meant by the term).   I don’t want to repeat what I’ve already said about his shady operations concerning money, especially but not limited to his adventures in the FMM.  He was not fleeing repression or death-threats, he was running away from a possible jail term. Simple.  Clearly this Sara Nics doesn’t believe in homework. 

Deshapriya true to form turns necessity into virtue.  He pumps Nics with a fairytale and she purchases.  That’s what ‘new’ does, I suppose.  He tells Nics, ‘I am apolitical’ and she believes him.  He was never apolitical.  He was always political.  He was politically aligned with the LTTE, ever ready to whitewash its crimes against humanity and to secure any and every kind of positional advantage vis-à-vis the Government of Sri Lanka within his capacity.  He was no journalist; he was and still is a propagandist for terrorists and their lackeys.  The next time Sara Nics meets him, she could ask him who killed his driver and how come this ‘journalist’ got tongue-tied in naming names. 

Deshapriya makes Nics understand that his stories are not really full of flesh and blood because ‘(he is) a marked person’ who doesn’t want to associate with anyone openly and doesn’t want others getting into trouble.  He is marked, yes.  For theft.  He cannot get flesh and blood stories, because he’s always been skeletal and half-baked in his reportage.   He tells Nics that 70 journalists have fled the country.  Now that’s rubbish.  From where did he get this number?  If they’ve fled, they can stand up and say ‘yes, I fled for such and such a reason,’ can’t they?  There are no names mentioned because there aren’t that many. Lying only makes it difficult for any person who may have a legitimate reason to fear for his or her life to sound believable.   

Deshapriya tosses the number 34 at Nics and she catches neatly. That’s ‘the number of journalists killed in Sri Lanka’.  Why can’t Deshapriya name them? After all, they won’t be ‘harmed’ would them?  

Nics quotes someone called Fred Carver, ‘Campaign Director’ of some dubious outfit called ‘Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice’.  This Carver person says that many Sri Lankan journalists self-censor.  Correct.  So does the BBC, didn’t he know?  And Channel 4.  It’s called ‘manufacturing’. 

There’s no such thing, Sara, called absolute media freedom.  We don’t live in Media Paradise, not here and not in England or Switzerland.  There’s always work to be done and those who have integrity and commitment keep working.  The work is only made harder when jackasses spout palpable rubbish and the naïve lap it all up. 

Carver wants there to be avenues for Sri Lankan journalists to apply for asylum.  That’s good.  There will be all kinds of people claiming to be journalists and claiming persecution.  If the relevant authorities in asylum-giving countries are anything like Sara Nics, they’ll get a free ticked to what they believe are greener pastures.  It is not a nice thing to prey on naiveté of course, but Sara Nics and her ilk are hardly babes in the woods. If they want to play sucker, so be it. 

I want Sara Nics to become ‘old’ but history shows that Deshapriya is an ace at squeezing wide-eyed journalistic oranges from the West to their last naïve drop. 

Sara Nics wants to explore the complexities of South Asia.  South Asia will not have any trouble in exploring her. She’s not complex at all.  She’s quite simple, really. 

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