Hands off the press

Less than two years into his presidency, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has earned an ignominious honour, joining a 2021 list of global leaders that media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has named enemies of the independent press.

In a grave indictment on the subcontinent, several South Asian heads of government have entered the RSF Predators of Press Freedom index, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistani Premier Imran Khan, and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. More than a third of these leaders, that the RSF calls “tyrants” hail from the Asia-Pacific region. For the first time, the Predators of Press Freedom list includes two women leaders, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and PM Hasina of Bangladesh. RSF lists 37 such ‘predators’ who trample on press freedom by creating a censorship apparatus, jailing journalists arbitrarily or inciting violence against them. The list includes the usual suspects, the worst of the worst dictator types, North Korea’s Kim Jung-Il, Syria’s Bashar Al Assad, and Eretria’s Issaias Afwerki.

President Rajapaksa makes the list because of atrocities committed against journalists when he held office as Secretary of Defence. RSF said the failure to hold perpetrators accountable for those attacks against the press, has made journalists fearful under his presidency, forced to choose between reporting on sensitive issues and preserving life. In the five years that the Rajapaksa family was out of power, progress was made on some of these cases, including the Prageeth Eknaligoda disappearance, the Keith Noyahr abduction and the Lasantha Wickrematunge assassination. But since November 2019, the Government has actively obstructed these probes, set up commissions to acquit military officials accused of the crimes and promoted them within the security establishment. It is these reversals and justice failures and the ongoing stifling of dissent using draconian laws and fabricated charges that has driven media rights groups to include President Rajapaksa in its 2021 list of predators.

It is in this backdrop that furious debate unfolded in Parliament over reported attempts by the Government to cancel broadcasting licences issued to the Sirasa Media Network. Sirasa is the third largest broadcaster in Sri Lanka and has been a platform for vocal criticism of the SLPP Government. While the two other broadcasters remain firmly aligned with the ruling party, NewsFirst has championed environmental activism in the face of unprecedented deforestation and unsustainable practices and the ecocide that has followed the X-Press Pearl disaster.

Old ghosts haunt the relationship between Sirasa TV and the current ruling family. In 2009, the broadcaster’s state-of-the-art studio in Pannipitiya was attacked. The attack took place after consistent threats and intimidation from the regime and its officials, including the portrayal of the broadcaster as aligned to the LTTE. The attack on Sirasa TV occurred some 48 hours before Lasantha Wickrematunge, the bold editor of the Sunday Leader was murdered in his car in Colombo. Wickrematunge made his final public appearance inside the besieged studio hours after the attack, condemning the assault on Sirasa as “terroristic”.

If the past is prologue, the alleged attempt by a group of Government lawyers to silence Sirasa TV must be taken seriously and condemned in the strongest possible terms. Faced with devastating crises and increasing unpopularity, the Government is choosing to crackdown rather than tackle reform and change course. All public protests and demonstrations have been banned indefinitely. Now the administration will focus on silencing the free press. It is not the first time a government has attempted these draconian measures, and it certainly will not be the last. While Wickrematunge was alive, his no-holds-barred reporting brought about the sealing of the Sunday Leader presses, grenade attacks on his home, death threats and intimidation. Even after the attack in 2009, Sirasa TV continued to broadcast fearlessly. Often, the crackdown is a last desperate attempt to cling to power, and it almost always backfires because it crystallises opposition to a regime sliding towards authoritarianism.

The fact is the world is fast losing its appetite for tough guys. In the 21st Century, with social media networks and internet penetration being what it is, crackdowns against the press will only get a government so far. Over its abysmal human rights record, Sri Lanka is staring down the barrel of losing trade concessions, individualised sanctions, and economic collapse. The last thing the Government needs now is to open a new front against the media that will bring international condemnation and censure.