The following is a 2 March 2000 ARTICLE 19 letter to the Sri Lankan media minister, replying to his letter of 27 January: 2 March 2000 The Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, M.P. Minister of Posts, Telecommunications & The Media Level 18, West Tower Trade Center Echelon Square Colombo 1 Sri Lanka By fax: 00 94 1 […]
The following is a 2 March 2000 ARTICLE 19 letter to the Sri Lankan media minister, replying to his letter of 27 January:
2 March 2000
The Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, M.P.
Minister of Posts, Telecommunications & The Media
Level 18, West Tower
Trade Center
Echelon Square
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka
By fax: 00 94 1 440488
Dear Minister
Thank you for your letter of 27 January 2000, in response to ours of 19 January 2000. We welcome the fact that we are still engaged in an active dialogue around these matters and hope that this will continue. At the same time, we feel it is necessary to make a number of general points and clarifications in response to issues you raise. Before we do, however, let me apologise for misspelling your name in our original letter.
As you know, ARTICLE 19 is an international human rights organisation, devoted to the promotion and protection of freedom of expression. The primary role of human rights norms is to act as a limit on the extensive powers wielded by public authorities, so as to prevent the abuse of rights in the exercise of these powers. As such, ARTICLE 19, along with other human rights organisations, addresses its comments largely to governments and other public actors, rather than the media or, indeed, private citizens. This is why we do not, as you note, address issues relating to professionalism or balance in the private media. In our experience, these are adequately dealt with in most countries through a combination of professional self-regulation and limited State regulation, as permitted under international law. For the record we note that we do not agree with many of the accusations in your letter against the private media, although now is not the appropriate time to address those issues.
The LTTE, however, is in a very different position from private actors, including the private media. Due to the role it plays in Sri Lanka, ARTICLE 19 and other human rights organisations consider that the LTTE is clearly responsible for human rights abuses and we have frequently condemned their actions.
You suggest that ARTICLE 19 lacks objectivity and that we rely for information on a few partisan “correspondent organisations” within Sri Lanka. In fact, we base all of our work on an analysis of international standards relating to freedom of expression. While perfect objectivity is hard to achieve, we pride ourselves on our efforts to be fair and balanced when assessing government action which goes against human rights standards. We gather information about Sri Lanka from a broad range of sources, both within Sri Lanka and elsewhere, and have no particular correspondent organisations.
We cannot agree with your claim that the Sri Lankan Government “fully respects Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”. Your own government would appear to have recognised the need for reform in this area, in its 1994 Election Manifesto, through its appointment of four expert committees and through the appointment, in early 1998, of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Legislative and Regulatory Framework Relating to Media. We look forward to seeing the Select Committee’s recommendations when it finally completes its work.
Three specific areas where media law reform is urgently needed in Sri Lanka are the censorship under emergency regulations of military news, criminal defamation laws and governmental control over the State media. Key points we would make in these areas are as follows:
– the emergency regulations imposing censorship of military news go far beyond the scope of restrictions permitted under Article 19(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – notwithstanding the security situation – as elaborated in this area in the Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (1), a copy of which has been enclosed for your interest;
– criminal defamation laws have been widely criticised as being contrary to the guarantee of freedom of expression – by human rights organisations, by official bodies such as the UN Human Rights Committee and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and in the report of the Sri Lankan expert Committee to Advise on the Reform of Laws Affecting Media Freedom and Freedom of Expression;
– it is well established that governments have no right to exercise editorial control over State-funded broadcasters and indeed your own Supreme Court has held this to be the case (2); the government’s dissatisfaction with the private media does not give it the right to co-opt public resources – media funded through public taxes should serve the public interest, not the government’s own ends.
In addition, we reiterate the point in our original letter that it is at best very irresponsible for the President to make pointed attacks on specific journalists, including Victor Ivan and Lasantha Wickrematunge, particularly where these are followed by reports in the State media that the Criminal Investigation Department is investigating a possible conspiracy involving editors of two weekend private newspapers and the LTTE. In the past, there have been a number of physical attacks on journalists, and verbal attacks of this sort by public figures can only contribute to the risk of such physical attacks.
I hope this response clarifies a number of issues you raise, and would welcome the opportunity to continue this dialogue with you at the next available opportunity.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Puddephatt
Executive Director
1. These Principles have been endorsed by UN bodies and quoted with approval by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court.
2. Gamini Athukoral “Sirikotha” and Ors v. Attorney-General, 5 May 1997, S.D. Nos. 1-15/97 (SC).
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be sent to:
The Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, M.P.
Minister of Posts, Telecommunications & The Media
Level 18, West Tower
Trade Center
Echelon Square
Colombo 1, Sri Lanka
Fax: +94 1 440 488
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