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Presenter: It’s seventeen minutes to nine now and it is the time for peace and
reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Tomorrow millions of Sri Lankans vote in the first elections since the end of the long civil war and the defeat of the Tamil tigers two months ago. The election has been seen by the government as a way of uniting this divided island, but is being
reluctant to allow foreign journalists into the country to report on it. Our reporter Andrew Hosken has been asking why.
Andrew Hosken: The Pettah bus station is the biggest and busiest transport hub in Colombo and since the defeat of the Tamil tigers it resumed a bus service to enter into the war torn Jaffna the island’s northern major city something which would have been impossible few
months ago. We could buy a ticket and even board the bus but certainly we would be turned off at the Military Check Point nearly 200 miles away from here near the town of Madawachchiya.
Manik de Silva is the editor of the Sunday Island Newspaper and President to the Editor’s Guild of Sri Lanka. What do you think of the government not allowing western journalists into the North?
Manik de Silva: I don’t know. But I don’t like that decision at all because it implies that they have got something to hide. I think if an election is being held, for it to be free and fair, there must be extensive media coverage.
Presenter: But the last stage of the civil war took place in the north of the island, it is where elections are being held for the first time in 25 years and where more controversially perhaps there are camps around 280,000 internally displaced people. Rajiva Wijesinha is
the Secretary to Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights. The Ministry responsible for the Camps. Why is that you will not allow journalists into these camps to see the conditions for themselves?
Dr. Wijesinghe: I think the answer is self-evident in terms of what some of them did when they were allowed in they have to sensationalise and I am afraid that has really mucked it up for the vast majority of decent media. So I am afraid you got to realise that some of you
tell lies.
Andrew: Well we have seen the conditions of the camps for ourselves the only people we can talk about them really are the aid agencies. I am now off to see the country’s director of OXFAM which does important work within the camps. David White visited the camps as recently
as three weeks ago.
David White, Director/OXFAM: The conditions at first were not very good but they are improving. I think one of the main problems in the camps has been overcrowding. I think in this case the key issue in improving conditions will be government’s resettlement plan and getting
people out of camps.
Andrew: What is the greatest concern of OXFAM and other aid agencies have?
David White, Director/OXFAM: I think one of the biggest issues is freedom of movement when the fighting ended and the civilians fled there were lot of Tamil tigers that mixed within the civilian population and the government has run a screening process and it is in the
process of identifying those Tamil tigers. What we are asking now is that civilians are identified and to allow them to return and the ones whose houses have been destroyed to be given the option to staying with their families or having freedom of movement within the camps to
enable to restart their livelihoods.
Andrew: But the Sri Lankan government says it has good reasons for confining people to the camps?
Dr. Wijesinha: It’s simply that the categories of people who can be above suspicion is narrow in Sri Lanka for the obvious reasons that the tigers were much cleverer in using the most unexpected people. So you have to remember that the last attack on the senior Tamil
Minister in the government was by the same movement.
Andrew: The government says it hopes to resettle 80% of the refugees by the end of the year. At the moment it appears it good or bad it’s the story for the government here is reluctant for the western media to tell.
Presenter: Andrew Hosken there you have been reporting from Sri Lanka this week very extensively on those elections. We are glad to say we are joined by the Sri Lanka High Commissioner, Justice Nihal Jayasinghe in the radio car. Good Morning to you.
High Commissioner: Good Morning.
Presenter: Can we get more from you on this decision to be restricting foreign reporting of the elections? You may be knowing that it is a pretty basic principle of elections and free elections that they are reporting on and it seems pity just not allowing journalists free
movement and not allowing journalists into the camps to see the conditions to themselves. What is the real reason for that do you think?
High Commissioner: No no. You see you are starting at the wrong end. We have been allowing foreign journalists. Daily Telegraph, Mail on Sunday and so many others have asked visas and having checked their credentials we have allowed them. There are journalists stationed in
Colombo and in Sri Lanka and there are also Sri Lankan journalists who work for the international agencies. So when something happens in Sri Lanka even though there is absence of foreign journalists or aid agencies there will be the Sri Lankan watchdogs who will take it up with who
ever that needs to be addressed.
Presenter: Do you understand the concern that independent journalists are not allowed into the camps or internally displaced people; couple of hundred thousands of them to talk about the conditions; to find out if there any grievances and to find out what is going on? It’s
just a very unsatisfactory situation isn’t it?
High Commissioner: Now you used the term independent journalist. You heard the Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management who talked about the so called independent journalist. My experience here in London is that there is a gross distortion of what is happening there
in Sri Lanka by some of the journalists and even this Mr. Hoskins, right, he mentioned that the Tamil population in Sri Lanka is 4 million and 20% which is again not true. He says the people are not allowed to vote unless they have identity cards. There is no requirement for an
identity. All that we require is the voter to establish his identity whatever the way he to prevent rigging. So you can’t win any way can you?
Presenter: I mean sometimes when you are in government or when you are in position of authority you don’t like what the journalists say and that is one of the things in a free country deals with. Well in free countries normally the authorities have to put up with its
experiences that a free press and an active press; overall mistakes may of course occur, overall it seems worth better than not having a free press holding you guys to account for me is not a bad thing.
High Commissioner: No. Free press doesn’t mean inaccurate reporting and distorting facts. We have gone through nearly for 2 years of misreporting, misrepresentation and that takes a heavy toll on the government’s credibility.
Presenter: Well without the journalists going in we are not going to know about the misreporting because the people who discovered the misreporting are journalists going in having a free press.
High Commissioner: Right. Once the situation becomes conducive I can assure you the doors will be open for the journalists to come in. It’s little too premature. One of the television programmes said we smuggled in a camera. I mean if you are in Sri Lanka you have to abide
by the laws of that country and when they behave in an irresponsible manner the government naturally will have to take counter measures.
Presenter: We look forward for the invitation to go in. High Commissioner Nihal Jayasinghe, thank you very much.
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