The Media Center For National Security in 2010.
Next to the Colombo Swimming Club there’s a place called the Media Center For National Security. It’s about as dubious as it sounds. Now they’ve announced that they want to clear all SMS news alerts relating to national security. Which is de facto dubious, but they’re also slow.
Once I asked for permission to go on a boat. The Navy runs these boats for students up the Wellawatte canal and I just wanted to see, for a story on military tourism. Anyways, I asked a high-ranking Navy guy and he told me to ask the MCNS. I asked the MCNS and they asked me to ask Lakshman Hulugalle (the Director General). I asked him and he told me to send a fax. I sent a fax and they never got back to me, even after I called a few times. And this was to get on a boat.
I honestly don’t think they can keep up with the news cycle, and they shouldn’t be there anyways. There is actually an existing legal system to deal with such issues, and I think media houses are all too aware of the consequences. The MCNS is extraneous (at best) and dubious on a good day. I’ve been to their press briefings and it’s short eats and Kool-Aid. They don’t need to be between me and my misspelled SMS alerts. Though a copy editor should be, hint hint.
As an addition, the AFP and Reuters reports are using the word censor. I guess that is the right word. When I moderate comments or Facebook pages people have said that’s censorship, which is just dumb. Censorship applies to quasi-public spaces, not essentially private ones (ie, ones own blog or Facebook page). This has made me reluctant to use the term at all, but here it definitely applies. The government deffa wants to censor SMS news, or at least have the power to.
Hmm. Interesting. There is no fighting anymore, so no military operations as such, so what is deemed”national security”?
The only thing vaguely approaching the definition could be the recent events of mob violence. Perhaps public protests, which tend to end up with shots fired and other violence?
I am expecting more tax hikes in the first couple of weeks of April, so preemptive measures may be necessary.
The other angle are the goings-on in Geneva, is something brewing on that front?
It’s possibly the way things are going globally. We’ve had unprecedented freedom with social networking and the like for a few years, but governments can control more than they do now.
For example, though the idea never got off the ground, some politicians and police wanted to censor Twitter during the UK riots. BlackBerrys and Twitter/Facebook were used to incite trouble, but also to alieve it.
As Jack Point says, what alerts are covered anyways? (by the way, does anyone actually like unsolicited SMSs?)
Must be the recent spate of criminal cases involving politicians and their cohorts: Rape/ murder of tourists, drug peddling, extortion, gruesome murder of a woman and her teenaged daughter, and the latest additions to the list, beating a youth to death over some love affair, poaching in forest reserves, illicit gemming and mining. They must be afraid that a fresh wave of disclosures amidst expected price hikes might cause the worm to turn.
I think it’s more the pressure from the Channel 4 stuff, and the recent murder-suicide among soldiers
“gruesome murder of a woman and her teenaged daughter, and the latest additions to the list, beating a youth to death over some love affair,”
Sorry, I’ve literally been living under a rock the past few months… do you mind shedding some light on the above events?
What is an SMS alert relating to National Security? As you rightly said MCNS have no clue about defining this either as an organization, the staff. Whatever they are about is not relevant in this day and age. So actually they are surplus to the National Effort. So they may actually be trying to find an excuse for drawing such a huge expense to run them from the Treasury.
They must be auctioned off to the highest bidder as Government Surplus. I bet they have no bids!!
My advice is just stay put.
But if you really want to feel miserable:
http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4872:kahawatte-tragedy-when-friends-turn-killers&catid=35:news-features&Itemid=37
The IGP’s views, even after a suspect had confessed:
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=47325
The other incident
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=47322
Thanks!
WTF that guy killed the mother and daughter, and then raped the daughters dead corpse while his wife watched… that’s f’n disgusting.
Yeah but coming back to your original concern, I also don’t think the SMS censorship is to do with this sort of thing and more to do with the international issues concerning SL.
These murderers being connected to politicians or not, they have been nabbed, which is counter to the norm we’re used to hearing! So bravo to the authorities for having the backbone to take it to them.