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Friday Sep 20, 2024
Friday, 20 December 2013 00:57 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Professor P.W. Epasinghe says that experts who have extensively studied the videos produced by Channel 4 have clearly stated that these videos are forgeries.
The Senior Presidential Advisor, Peradeniya University Chancellor and ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chairman said so while participating as Chief Guest at ICTer 2013 held at BMICH recently.
The Professor decried the misuse of technology and reminded the audience that the country had witnessed the negative impact of the controversial video ‘Channel 4’.
“We all know how technology could be used against humanity and the stability of an emerging nation like Sri Lanka. Some media organisations sometimes misuse technology to fulfil their own agendas. Some misuse technology, especially communication technology, to achieve their individualistic objectives. As the citizens of this country, we all witnessed the negative impact of the controversial video, ‘Channel 4’ attempting to disseminate falsehood about the last days of the humanitarian operation in the north. According to the subject specialists, video forgery is a technique for generating fake videos by altering, combining, or creating new video contents.
The videos produced by Channel 4 have been extensively studied by experts who have stated in no uncertain terms that they are forgeries.”
The Colombo University School of Computing partnered the New York based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), in the 14th ICTer including its conference on 12 and 13 December.
During his address, Professor Epasinghe discussed ICTer’s mission with ICT experts representing Germany, Australia, Sweden, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Singapore, India and Sri Lanka.
“Emerging regions offer a wealth of opportunities in trade, technology and investment. The recent economic development in these regions has spurred them to seek a more important role in world affairs. This has been particularly evident in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), where emerging regions have seen a very rapid growth. This growth is mirrored by the wealth of the increasing number of research publications produced. Unfortunately, much of this work has gone largely unnoticed by the world community. This is partially due to the fact that such notice requires publication in internationally reputed journals, and partially due to the fact that applicable researches in emerging regions get little or no global exposure.”
Commenting on the ICTer mission excerpt, the ICTer 2013 Chief Guest Professor Epasinghe said having difficulties in finding international exposure to expertise of emerging nations was a universal problem: “This is indeed a problem for all the scientists in emerging regions.”
However, expressing his confidence in ICTer 2013 easing the difficulties researchers in emerging nations experience in having their wealth of expertise published in international journals, the ICTA Chairman affirmed: “I do not have the slightest doubt that this international conference will be a valuable contribution towards the solution of the problem vividly described by the quotation.”
Professor Epasinghe also strove to drive home to the audience the need to stand for fairness in the global community. “Do small militarily weak countries have access to justice even in the hands of a body like the United Nations?” he asked, citing an example that showed the biased situation that some emerging nations have found themselves in.
“For example, Robin Cook, a former British Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, was asked on live international television in 2003 by the BBC whether he had any fears that some of their officials would be dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their unjustified invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and subsequent murders of tens of thousands of citizens of those countries. Britain also holds veto powers on the UNSC; the one organ where the ICC derives its authority from. He said, ‘this is not a court set up to bring to book prime ministers of the United Kingdom, or presidents of the United States’.”
