When Lasantha, who had been away, returned to Sri Lanka, Lal explained to him what had happened. Lasantha was furious. The proposal went ignored.

Has this story come out in the media? The answer is “No”. Why not? Self-censorship, a result of the fear of abductions, killings and other forms of pressure. It may be that the president wanted to silence Lasantha by offering to buy the newspaper at a price far above its real value. President Rajapaksa called Lasantha a “terrorist journalist” in an interview with Reporters Without Borders last October. He said the same thing to me last September, calling Lasantha “Kotiyek” (a Tiger) during a meeting I had with him in my then role as convener of the Free Media Movement.

Under President Rajapaksa’s regime there have been several changes of ownership of newspaper publishing houses. The Rivira Media Company owned the Nation, Bottom Line and Rivira. Prasanna Wickramasuriya, head of the Civil Aviation Airport Services Authority and a relative of Rajapaksa, bought 51 per cent of its shares. The balance was bought by Nilanka Rajapaksa. The ownership of the newspaper was completely changed. Reputable journalists have since resigned.

The Daily Lakbima, Sunday Lakbima and Lakbima are owned by Thilanga Sumathipala. He was an electoral organiser for the main opposition party. By inviting Sumathipala to his party and by making him an electoral organiser for his party the president successfully tamed these newspapers.

The newspaper Siyatha is owned by Prasantha Kariyapperuma, whose wife, the popular actress Sangeetha Weerarathne, is in the president’s inner circle of associates. Prasantha’s brother, Priyantha Kariyapperuma, is the head of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission. Before Siyatha was established, I was offered the position of chief editor through his front men, with a monthly salary of 100,000 rupees plus other benefits — this was three times more than what I was earning at the time. After I refused, four of our press freedom activists accepted senior posts on the paper, but they resigned within three months over issues of editorial independence.

The Sunday Island, Island, Irida Divaina and Divaina are all owned by Nimal Welgama. He is the brother of Kumara Welgama, a senior minister of the president’s cabinet.

The country’s largest newspaper company, which publishes the Observer, Daily News, Silumina, Dinamina and Thinakaran, is owned by the state and under the president’s control.

The second largest newspaper company, the Times Group, is owned by Ranjith Wijewardane, an uncle of the leader of the opposition, Ranil Wickaramasinghe. The president has started to visit Ranjith Wijewardane’s house regularly, and has also been manipulating the newspapers through the editors and the senior journalists in the Times Group.

Tamil newspapers are under pressure. Since last week, newspapers Uthayan and Sudaroli have been receiving warnings not to publish from an unknown group.

Other small newspapers are also being harrassed, and the president is attempting to control them by giving them government advertisements or by writing off their debts and taxes and giving them financial support through state banks.

Sri Lanka is heading towards totalitarianism. For this to happen, the media has to be tamed. It seems that, to this end, the president of Sri Lanka is taking a leaf out of the Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi’s book. One can say almost all the newspapers, magazines and TV stations in Italy are owned by the premier. Even the opposition’s newspapers are printed on his presses. When the person at the helm of a country owns the media, there’s effectively a monopoly. This type of monopoly, in the latest journalistic jargon, is called the “Berlusconi Effect”. Under President Rajapaksa, the media industry will be soon facing the same fate.

The president of Sri Lanka is himself an experienced spin doctor. Former president Chandrika Kumaratunge used to call him “reporter” because he leaked cabinet secrets and political gossip and thus became a so-called “friend of the media”. After defeating the LTTE, the president said that he would introduce a new solution for the national question and that other countries need not advise him. He also said there are only two groups of people in Sri Lanka, those who are patriotic and those who are unpatriotic. Sure, he will introduce a new solution to the national question, which will be to make the country totalitarian. It’s not going to be the same totalitarian model as China, the Soviet Union, Burma, Iran, Cuba or Libya. It will be Sri Lanka’s own Mahinda Rajapaksa model.

http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2009/07/remembering-lasantha-wickrematunga/

The guns are now silent in Sri Lanka. No more bayonets. But four newspapers out of 24 remain critical of the government, still trying to push the limits. All other newspapers are either controlled by the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his relatives, or are exercising self censorship. The president does not want the public to hear a single criticism of his government.

Perhaps that’s why he re-enforced the government-controlled press council on 12 June, despite the fact that the industry-run self-regulatory mechanism, the press complaints commission, is still operating. If that’s not the reason, then the government of Sri Lanka must answer the following questions: why has the government reintroduced the press council after seven years? Has the Sri Lankan press complaints commission failed to protect the victims of the press? If yes, can the government publish any data or research to prove it? Has the press self-regulatory system failed to protect the readers in Sri Lanka?

I don’t think the government will be able to answer any of those questions, but I can answer the last. Yes, we failed. As a press self-regulator we failed. That’s why only four newspapers out of 24 (Sunday Leader, Iruduna, Ravaya and Lanka) are not blindly supporting the government, or self-censoring. That’s why the majority of Sri Lankan people believe what the government says. That’s why the majority of Sri Lankan people are unware of the scale of the casualties of the war. That’s why the majority of the Sri Lankan public are unaware of the situation for internally displaced persons. That’s why the majority of Sri Lankan people are unaware of human rights violations. That’s why the majority of Sri Lankan people are unaware of democratic traditions.

All this has to be looked at in the context of the restrictions of the democratic space in the last three years in Sri Lanka. One issue is the abduction, false arrests and killing of journalists along with the burning of printing presses, withdrawal of the licences of the media institutions, and the changing of the ownership of media institutions. The reality for journalists in Sri Lanka is that they are fortunate to be allowed to live. But they live in fear of abductions and killings.

It’s not so much a matter of what you do write, but what you are told not to write. We are told not to refer to issues, or mention the president in this manner, or the secretary of defence in that manner. An enjoining order has been issued against the publication of any news item “defamatory” of the defence secretary.

Once, when I criticised the president in a live TV discussion, the government stopped the broadcast. Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of the Sunday Leader, was killed, and still no one has been arrested. Journalist Tissanayagam has been in prison for over a year on false charges.

Even at election time, almost all the media, both electronic and print, state run and private, support the ruling party. The media engage in a certain amount of self censorship, but this is far beyond the norm. Such is life in Sri Lanka.

The second issue is the breakdown of the institutions; a parliament in which ministers fail to turn up to answer questions, and committees of public enterprises and public accounts that are no longer functioning. These are the committees which are now headed by members of the government, which dictates what should be done. The Constitutional Council, an independent body which is responsible for nominating members of the Independent Commissions, the Police Commission, the Public Service Commission, the Election Commission, and approving nominations for Attorney General, among others, has yet to be appointed. When the normal institutions no longer function, certain MPs and civil servants are above the law.

As I said earlier, the press in Sri Lanka already has its own self-regulatory mechanism. It could improve, of course, but it’s on the right track. The reintroduction of the government press council signifies yet another blow to the system of checks and balances that is crumbling, along with Sri Lankan democracy.