(FMM/IFEX) – The following is a 16 February 2007 FMM letter to Sri Lankan Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa: Secretary Ministry of Defense Government of Sri Lanka 16.Feb.2007 Dear Sir, We wish to bring to your attention a news story on the website http://www.defense.lk on the Free Media Movement that is factually incorrect and grossly […]
(FMM/IFEX) – The following is a 16 February 2007 FMM letter to Sri Lankan Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa:
Secretary
Ministry of Defense
Government of Sri Lanka
16.Feb.2007
Dear Sir,
We wish to bring to your attention a news story on the website http://www.defense.lk on the Free Media Movement that is factually incorrect and grossly misleading. We also seek to remind you that we first informed you of this news story, seeking urgent redress, on 12th Feb 2007 by phone.
The FMM categorically rebukes the news story by Mr. Walter Jayawardana at the following URL – http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070208_13 – under the heading “Free media movement demands release of three terrorist suspects”.
We wish to bring to your attention the following excerpt in particular:
“While Sri Lanka’s politically-motivated Free Media Movement demanded that three radicals attached to a Railway trade union bi-monthly newspaper be immediately released, the video clips of the three making confessions said, they have received three consignments of weapons and explosives from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after short term weapons training by the terrorist group. . .
“Reports say that the Free Media Movement, which is closely linked to NGO’s, had planned to stage a protest campaign demanding the release of the arrested journalists, but cancelled the decision after their confessions to the links with the separatist Tigers.”
The FMM categorically states that:
1. It did not request the release of those arrested, in any of its press releases.
2. It did not plan any protest campaigns demanding the release of those arrested.
Furthermore, we wish to register our displeasure at the manner in which a photo from a rally organised in the past by the FMM is used in this news article. The photo bears no relation whatsoever to the news article. The use of the photo out of context presents a grossly misleading representation of the FMM.
We note with concern that Mr. Jayawardana has not quoted any independently verifiable source or reference as to where he obtained the information regarding the FMM. The resulting errors in the representation of facts regarding the FMM not only mislead the public but can also be used to vilify and defame the organisation and its members.
We request you to urgently publish a correction on your website that presents an accurate representation of the FMM and its activities. All our releases can be read on http://www.freemediasrilanka.org web site.
We will be compelled to make this issue public and seek other remedial measures if you do not comply with our request for such a correction, based on the professional media practices and ethics that we seek to secure and strengthen in Sri Lanka.
Sincerely yours,
Sunanda Deshapriya
Convener
0777312457
