The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned at reports that broadcasts of the BBC Sinhala and Tamil programs in Sri Lanka were censored by the government-controlled host network.
According to the five leading journalists’ organisations in Sri Lanka, known as the Five Media Collective, several sections of a broadcast of a speech on November 27 by V. Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the subsequent political commentary program Defence Watch were made inaudible.
The Five Media Collective said it received information to suggest that the government-controlled and publicly funded Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC), which hosts the BBC local language programs, intervened in the broadcast to censor anti-government commentary about Sri Lanka’s civil conflict.
“This act of censorship by SLBC authorities is a clear violation of the people's right to information and is an interference with the democratic entitlement to the free exchange and contest of alternative perspectives on a key issue of public policy,” the Five Media Collective said in a statement today.
The Five Media Collective comprises of the Free Media Movement (FMM), the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union (FMETU), the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), all IFJ affiliates, and the Sri Lankan Muslim Media Forum and the Sri Lankan Tamil Media Alliance.
“In times of severe conflict and war it is especially important that the public has access to information, independent reports, commentary and differing points of view. Efforts to allow the expression of only one point of view limit opportunities for conflict mitigation,” IFJ Asia-Pacific said.
Independent and critical reporting on the conflict in Sri Lanka is frequently met with hostility by both sides to the conflict.
On June 2, the commander of the Sri Lankan army, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, made statements criticising journalists as undeserving of basic freedoms after the May 22 abduction and assault of Keith Noyahr, deputy editor and defence writer for the English weekly The Nation.
In October 2007, Iqbal Athas, a defence correspondent and associate editor for The Sunday Times in Colombo, was verbally attacked by the Sri Lankan government due to his criticism of government corruption and military expenditure.
The IFJ joins the Five Media Collective in demanding SLBC explain immediately the reason for the interference in the broadcast and urges Sri Lanka’s Government to end censorship.
For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919
The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries worldwide