{"id":1752,"date":"2023-03-08T00:42:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T00:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/?p=1752"},"modified":"2023-03-08T00:42:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T00:42:51","slug":"sri-lankas-freedom-of-press-is-an-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/08\/sri-lankas-freedom-of-press-is-an-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Freedom of Press is an Illusion<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cFreedom of media is paramount to democracy in Sri Lanka,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what President Ranil Wickramasinghe stated when asked to comment on the News 1st journalists who were severely injured at the hands of armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What democracy and freedom of media is he referring to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lanka many journalists have worked in, has never made them feel free to express their thoughts and opinions. They\u2019ve never felt safe to publish with their real names, opting for pseudonyms. They\u2019ve never felt safe calling out the wrongdoings of powerful politicians, businessmen and of course thugs. Is this what \u2018freedom of press\u2019 looks like in Sri Lanka?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are 30 plus cases of unresolved deaths of journalists and media workers since the Rajapaksa government was formed. Out of 34 deaths, there was a range of Muslim, Sinhala and Tamil journalist deaths, however the vast majority was within the Tamil community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lasantha Wickrematunge\u2019s death was one of the last recorded, unresolved deaths of a journalist. He exposed a corrupt arms deal Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had signed. He was scheduled to give evidence before a judge but was shot dead a few days prior. While the case remains unresolved, the alleged perpetrators continued to live a life of luxury in the Presidential Palace itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rajapaksa\u2019s have allegedly sent military death squads to attack journalists and media workers during their time in power. While they deny these allegations, it\u2019s hard to ignore the fact that the most unresolved journalist deaths occurred during their administration. While they\u2019ve not been found guilty for any of these deaths, they are guilty of inciting hatred and violence towards the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Rajapaksas\u2019 no longer wielding Presidential power, Ranil Wickramasinghe has come into rule. From his first day as President, he has been oppressing the media and worse, impinging on many of our fundamental human rights. Our right to free speech, our right to protest and our right to protection from violence and inhumane treatment. He, without justification, initiated attacks on peaceful protestors by using tear gas and high pressure water hoses. Divesa\u2019s very own foreign correspondents were subject to these unwarranted attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding to the issue of journalists not feeling safe to write freely and honestly, are the external influences on media. Media bias, whether the TV channels and newspapers are government or privately owned, is inevitable in Sri Lanka. The government news channels won\u2019t expose government corruption. Privately owned media channels won\u2019t expose or investigate stories that will impact their political and financial support. Then there are other international media channels that provide their interpretation of Sri Lankan incidents from a Western lens, not fully understanding the cultural and social values within the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many media channels can be bias, there are some news channels that aim to be objective. Media is about expressing opinions, thoughts and exposing controversies and scandals. It\u2019s about empowering the people and creating nationwide transparency. Unfortunately, Sri Lankan media workers don\u2019t have this independence, and those who choose to rise up against this oppression, don\u2019t live long enough to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is, are we going to let this oppressive government silence us and strip us of our human rights? Or are we willing to step up, take back our humanity and become a voice for the voiceless?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ Tharika Surandi ~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFreedom of media is paramount to democracy in Sri Lanka,\u201d This is what President Ranil Wickramasinghe stated when asked to comment on the News 1st journalists who were severely injured at the hands of armed forces. What democracy and freedom of media is he referring to? The Sri Lanka many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-country"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1753,"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1752\/revisions\/1753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divesanews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}