CPA Media Monitoring in 2009

The present times has reported more and more tragic and serious incidents taking place in the country and when the mass media is closely monitored we can clearly note the tendencies of these. At the same time we can also identify the contrasting manner in which media reporting is done in certain incidents. On the other hand we can also identify the tendencies that are developing in the country through the way these incidents are reported.

However last week some special incidents took place. One of the reported tragic incidents was the suicide bomb attack made at a religious procession of a ceremony held at the Jumma mosque in Godapitiya, Akuressa. All media Institutions allocated a lot of space for this incident. All monitored newspapers reported from their lead that 24 people died in that attack but the number of the wounded differed from 61, 30, 47 and 46. The Sinhala newspapers that came out on the 15^th, the day after the blast, has allocated 104 slots for editorials, lead stories, photographic descriptions, news and sad stories about the victims, relating to this incident. Reports made periodically on the health condition of Minister Mahinda Wijesekara seriously wounded in the blast, arrest of people on suspicion, transfer of police officers etc. etc. were among them. The Tamil newspapers as well published 84 news items about the blast on the 1^st day like other newspapers. The number of the dead was mentioned as 14, but the number of the injured mentioned differed again.

On the day the Akuressa bomb went off the newspapers were paying special attention to the MV Bin Tan ship that was bringing essential food and material to the displaced people in Wanni that was attacked at dawn on the 9^th of March. While Sinhala newspapers reported it in two lead stories, other papers reported it as front page news. The number of articles written about the ship in 27 Sinhala newspapers was six. All these reports basically said that this ship left Trincomalee and was unloading goods to boats in the Pudumathalan seas when it came under attack and as a result the ship sailed back. Some reports said that the 500 tons of food in this ship was the biggest load ever taken to Wanni while some other reports said that about 140 tons were unloaded. (Some newspapers said it was 144 tons) All the newspapers reported that the Tigers attacked the ship, where some called it a mortar attack and the other called it artillery fire. But the most noticeable issue here is none of the papers that made these reports ever bothered to publish the statement made by the ICRC in this regard. Only one Sinhala Sunday paper carried this statement. This makes it clear that there isn’t any clear reason to believe that there was an LTTE attack targeting the Bin Tan ship. According to this report based on Media coordinator of the ICRC Ms. Sarasi Wijeratne, this ship has returned due to bad weather. Also the area concerned is always witnessing battles and when comparing the information found in other media that did not appear in other newspapers, the cross fire between the two warring factions fell about 200 to 300 meters close to the ship and the attack was not made on it.

The Tamil newspapers as well published reports based on the statements made by the army spokesman and the Navy spokesman. During the monitoring period of March 9 to 15^th 24 Tamil newspapers published this news 9 times. This is slightly more than the other two. Also there is special news among this. The very news reported by a Sunday Sinhala newspaper based on the statement made by Ms. Sarasi Wijeratne, was told to the BBC by ICRC deputy chief of communications Clara Hadard. A Tamil newspaper used this as the basis for their report. This report says that although the Sri Lanka army is blaming the LTTE for attacking this ship, there is no enough reason to believe that an attack was made actually targeting the ship. However according to this report the conclusion that can be reached is that the ICRC do not have the ability to believe that these shells that fell about 200 meters away from the ship due to heavy fighting in Pudumathalan area, were actually aimed at the ship.

Out of the English papers that have allocated five opportunities to explain incident about the ship, one newspaper used its space to seriously condemn the statement made by Ms. Clara Hadard. It went on to question whether the attack was made by the Sri Lankan forces, if they cannot believe that an attack was made targeting the ship.

This observation inevitably raises the question whether it is the people who use the media that should be more analytical or the media that is presenting this news. Or is it just another incident that goes on to prove that the 1^st casualty of war is always the truth.

Download original article in Sinhala here.