A top defence official has issued a death threat against a Sri Lankan newspaper editor for reporting on military excesses and human rights abuses, journalists and a media rights group have said.
The editor of Colombo’s Daily Mirror, Champika Liyanaarachchi, said Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, issued the threat during a telephone conversation on Tuesday.
Liyanaarachchi said the president himself telephoned her later the same day to inquire into the threat. “The president said he will look into it,” she said. “There is no way of dismissing the threat.” Speaking in English, the incensed defence secretary had vowed to Liyanarachchi: “I’ll exterminate you!”
The Free Media Movement (FMM), which comprises journalists and rights activists, said the defence secretary had also said that the editor should not expect any security from the government to protect her. “Given the volatile situation in the country, FMM also fears that this threat sends a chilling message to the media community at large in Sri Lanka,” the group said.
The Daily Mirror did not report the threat but another paper, the Morning Leader, said Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had “criticised” the Mirror editor for a series of “anti-government” articles. Rajapaksa is said to have telephoned another reporter and “continued his vicious tirade by castigating the reporter and expressing his severe displeasure.”
The defence secretary has described the incident as “yet another calumniation made against him by LTTE proxies annoyed by the effective anti-terror campaign carried out by the Ministry of Defence.” While admitting that he had had a telephone conversation with the newspaper editor, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said in a statement on the ministry’s website that it was just a frank exchange of ideas on two controversial articles published on the said newspaper. He said he did not make any threats than openly expressing his views. He was surprised how the media had exaggerated the issue.
“This gross misconduct of a high-placed public official clearly demonstrates the challenges facing free media in Sri Lanka today,” FMM said, adding that government leaders and close allies were pressuring the media. “FMM urgently requests the government to ensure that loose tongues and wild imaginings of its ministers and allies are kept in check by educating them on the need to secure and strengthen free media as a vital foundation of democratic governance.”
According to TamilNet, in an article titled ‘Karuna faction running its writ in Pottuvil’ on Monday, the Daily Mirror reported the paramilitary group “is creating havoc in the Muslim-dominated Pottuvil town in Ampara, moving around freely with weapons in government-controlled areas while law enforcement authorities are allegedly turning a blind eye.”
The defence secretary told Liyanarachchi her paper’s story had angered the Karuna faction and, furthermore, was written against the Government. In the eventuality of Karuna Group violence against her, the President’s brother said Liyanarachchi should not expect any security from the government to protect her.
FMM noted that on previous occasions as well, government leaders had criticised Daily Mirror over its coverage of the conflict. “It is an open secret that government leaders and close allies are pressuring independent media to toe its line on war and peace. We see this latest development as a calculated process of coercion by the government that forces media to abandon its role watchdog of democracy, and instead adopt the supine role of a lap dog to those in power.”
Before leaving for Italy Wednesday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Liyanarachchi in a bid to defuse the controversy. The President suggested to Liyanarachchi that she had overreacted to Gotabhaya’s “expressions of concern for her safety,” Presidential Secretariat sources said.
In an interview to the BBC Sinhala service, Laksham Hulugalle, Director-General of the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS), said of Liyanarachchi: “We work closely work with her and I’m sure the Defence Secretary would never have said those things.” “He’s not there to threaten journalists but to protect the country from threats,” Hulugalle said of Gothabaya Rajapaksa.
