Editorial
Sri Lankan minister's shocking comments
Attempts to muzzle media must be resisted everywhere
Hawkishness in a desperate situation is generally counter-productive. But that truth appears to have been lost on Sri Lanka's defence minister Gotabhaya Rajapakse. He has just pronounced judgement on the work of some journalists in his country, describing them as 'traitors'. He has even gone a disturbing step further by calling for a sweeping censorship on the Sri Lankan media. The minister's comments obviously raise the legitimately indignant question of how he has given himself the right to judge the patriotism or otherwise of individuals he is not happy with. They also worry people that an individual in such a responsible position should be threatening an entire profession with possible government control over their professional work.
Of course, it is not unknown how the media in our part of the world are often at risk of being made inoperative by the whims and callousness of the powers that be. Journalists have often paid a high price for their courage and objectivity in such places as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in recent years. But nowhere have the threats against them been as blatant as those held out by Sri Lanka's minister. It is therefore only right and only to be expected that the Free Media Movement in Colombo will condemn his remarks and demand that he be 'held accountable for his words and reined in.' It is a response that all people conscious of the need for truth and a free working of the media anywhere will agree with and will in fact reinforce by joining in the call for high government functionaries to exercise self-control. It has always been the media which have been in the forefront of the struggle against censorship and against any form of arbitrary authority exercised by governments anywhere in this region and elsewhere. We believe that what is happening in Sri Lanka is a symptom of the malaise afflicting many countries in the region.
There is an ever greater need today to be vigilant against all attempts to regulate the media in the region. It is only a vibrant, active press that can project the ground realities in fraught situations, such as those prevailing in Sri Lanka today. We will expect that the Colombo authorities will desist from following through on the defence minister's suggestions.
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