Comments on: Flowers From Dung

By: SS

SS — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:59:24 +0000

There are precious few rights left in SL The emergency regulations give such sweeping powers that they negate most of what is enshrined in the constitution.

As long as the state decides not to use their powers on you, you may assume that you have rights. A number of articles written by bloggers over the last year or two testify to experiences (just do a search there were plenty of examples) that send a shudder through ones systems.

They were unlucky, although completely innocent. We have been lucky-so far.

One does not want to rely on the luck of the draw to remain out of prison and alive.

By: rajivmw

rajivmw — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:27:23 +0000

Press freedom, like most other liberties, comes under pressure during times of conflict. Even a cursory examination of history (and indeed the present) reveal that this is so, even in the most mature and advanced of democracies.

I do greatly admire the courage of some of our journalists, if not always their level of professionalism or ethics. I think this country will, in time, come to realize their heroism. But while there’s a war going on, people will always put security and survival before liberty, regardless of what Ben Franklin may have said.

I am sometimes amazed at rights and freedoms we still have in Sri Lanka. Very few people I talk to seem to have any kind of passion for these things, while a great many seem to yearn for some kind of dictatorship.

By: Gun Gun

Gun Gun — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:14:35 +0000

Reporting bias also can give you some idea of what the other party is thinking on issues. I buy the Daily mirror/Nation for general news, Island to understand the Sinhala nationalist viewpoint, Tamil dailies for the Tamil viewpoint on current events and Daily news for the obituaries section. Take the war for example, both Tamils and Sinhalese have totally opposing views on this which is largely fed to them by their media and information available to them.

By: dhammika dharmawardhane

dhammika dharmawardhane — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:04:53 +0000

http://www.civitas.org.uk/press/prcs47.php

I don’t believe that ‘freedom of speech’ is the issue here. If a media person can be plied with food, drink and a typed media release is given to them at the end of the evening, this release will be on media next day verbatim. 99% of the time in the case of Sri Lanka.

You as an educated young man from the west has the intelligence to grasp what is true or not. The masses sometimes simply believe. So for media to practice ‘freedom of speech’ at the expense of the general public – I say no!

And as part of the intelligentsia in Sri Lanka, I sincerely hope you do too.

I don’t in anyway condone the beating and harassment of media persons. But I will cry out publicly if they are no better than the government and they too set out to deliberately mislead the public.

So as far as I am concerned, all media people in Sri Lanka have lost any sort of credibility they may declare to posses. And you know very well a prejudiced media even in the ‘free west’ is not and will not be tolerated. Especially when it comes to national security.

Nationally I believe our media could stand up against the present irregularities by the government and the LTTE atrocities and gather global support. They are that powerful. But they don’t. Not because they can’t, they just can’t be bothered.

But that is part of the responsibility that comes with a job of that nature.

http://www.civitas.org.uk/press/prcs47.php