Sri Lanka's defence ministry lashes out at war reporting
COLOMBO (AFP) — Sri Lanka's defence ministry has launched scathing attacks against journalists critical of its war against Tamil rebels, labelling them "cowboy defence analysts" and "enemies of the state."
In two commentaries published on its website, the ministry also railed against what it said was "crap" being written about its escalating effort to eject the Tamil Tigers from the island's north.
The ministry presents reporters with a stark choice of being either pro-government or pro-terrorist -- sparking renewed alarm among media rights activists about freedom of the press in Sri Lanka.
The defence ministry, headed by the hawkish brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, said "media personnel may have their individual reservations of the war against terror," but stressed that the "success of any war effort needs public support."
"The armed forces of this country are engaged in the noble mission of liberating the country from the clutches of terrorism," said one of the commentaries carried on the official defence.lk website this week.
It said some writers were damaging morale, and warned that the ministry "does not wish to entertain mere doomsayers who always try to undermine the soldiers' commitment."
It also warned it would take "all necessary measures to stop this journalistic treachery against the country," but did not elaborate.
"Those who commit such treachery should identify themselves with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rather than showing themselves as crusaders of media freedom," added the article.
Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based press rights watchdog, said it was "very shocked" by the comments and accused the ministry of giving "indirect support and justification for all the recent violence against the press."
At least 12 Sri Lankan media workers have been killed over the past two years, while others have been abducted, tortured or illegally detained, according to Amnesty International.
The second commentary on the ministry's website also slammed reporters who "try to speculate (there is) something fishy about" the government's huge arms procurements.
"We do not mind any person trying to make his living by writing whatever crap to the newspapers. Yet, we too have our right to lay bare the truth of those cowboy defence analysts, for the good of the public," the ministry said.
It urged anyone reporting on the decades-old war against the LTTE -- who are trying to carve out a separate state within the Sinhalese-majority island -- to stick to "pure reporting" and not mislead the public with "inane comments that they are not qualified to make."
Journalists are already barred from visiting the front lines and from crossing into rebel-held areas.
The ministry said that criticism of the war was a part of the LTTE's "psychological operations," and that the "obvious aim of this is to bring international and public pressure on the government to abandon the military effort."
Culprits identified in the commentaries included the Free Media Movement (FMM) -- a prominent local rights group -- as well as several local media outlets and "dollar vultures in many foreign funded NGOs."
Sri Lanka's bitter ethnic war which has left thousands of people dead has escalated sharply since January, when the government pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce with the LTTE.
The defence ministry says it is winning the war, and so far this year has reported the deaths of 4,033 Tamil Tigers.
At the start of the year, the island's military said the LTTE had 3,000 fighters.
