Ceylon Today Editorial
The visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem
Pillay, who is in Sri Lanka on a week-long official tour, is expected to meet a
motley group of people representing the government, including the Head of the
State, the opposition, civil society, Tamil political parties, media and so
forth.
Pillay's visit caused ripples within the
government, soon after her office in Geneva announced her official tour, some
weeks back. Within days, the President appointed a special commission to inquire
the disappearances and abductions that took place during the height of war. Last
week, the Police Department was, suddenly, brought under the newly-established
Ministry of Law and Order. Both those measures were, in fact, part of
recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC),
nearly two years ago.
Earlier, in March this year, the UN Human
Rights Council (UNHRC) in a resolution called upon the government to implement
the recommendations of the LLRC. Now, Pillay is here to assess the country's
human rights record and the progress in the implementation of the
recommendations of the LLRC. Hence, the sudden interest in the government to
address those long-neglected human rights and governance related concerns.
In this backdrop, the existential grim
realities in the media landscape loom large. Pillay should listen to the media
fraternity in this country, who against many odds, had refused to bow down to
the powers that be. It is media that remains one of the last functioning pillars
of democracy in the country and unearthed much of the incriminating evidence of
violations of human rights and civil liberties. For simply doing their job,
those scribes were assaulted, abducted, killed and forced into exile. It was not
long ago that the reporters risked the wrath of the military in order to report
the mayhem in Weliweriya. Their reportage caused a public outrage over the
military excesses, triggered a debate on the militarization in the society and
prompted the government on a damage control offensive, which culminated in an
Army Court of Inquiry, a rare act on the part of the security
establishment.
Media in this country has shown enormous
resilience in the face of multiple threats. Those threats vary from the
prevailing climate of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of violence, the
concentration of media ownership with the individuals closely associated with
the incumbent regime, State interference with the editorial content, through
multiple means, the absence of a Right to Information Law, the safety of media
personnel and so forth. It is against those odds that media in this country
strives to be independent, vocal and outspoken; and in terms of those
attributes, the local press has fared much better than many of their
counterparts in Asia.
It is important that the visiting UN Human
Rights Chief be cognizant of the existential realities of the media landscape.
When she meets the government authorities, Pillay should bring up those concerns
that beset media freedom in this country, one of the oldest democracies in South
Asia. It is within her mandate to demand that the Government of Sri Lanka ends
the prevailing culture of impunity and prosecute the killers and abductors of
scores of scribes and many thousands of Sri Lankan citizens.
It is definitely within Pillay's mandate to ask
the government to ensure the safety of media personnel so that they would be in
a position to carry out their duties with a sense of security, without looking
over their shoulder.
Pillay should also remind the Government of Sri
Lanka that many recent democracies have enacted legislative provisions enabling
right to information of their public. Nepal and Bangladesh are two recent
examples. The Government of Sri Lanka has obstructed the passage of the Right to
Information Bill that was presented by the Opposition.
The UN Human Rights Chief may not be able to
convince the intransigent government to deliver on all measures. But, she may,
at least, succeed in forcing the government to address some concerns as per
press freedom.
