CPA Media Monitoring in 2009

So far, Vimarshi column was written as a monitoring of the media behavior in reporting humanitarian issues. This time we had to deviate from that theme in to a different kind of a media monitoring because of the fact that the incident happened in the country during the period relevant to the monitoring was exceptional to media and we ourselves could experience that exceptionality in our observation. That exceptional incident was the killing of all the LTTE leaders including its leader Prabhakaran on 19th May and the official proclamation made by the government that the war has been concluded. It was not only for Sri Lanka that the news of killing Prabhakaran and the proclamation of ending the war was exceptional. That exceptionality was there to the whole world. Doing a comprehensive monitoring of such an incident and giving a brief summary of it is not an easy task, as anybody who was attentive to the media during those few days would agree. On one hand media activities in the background of these incidents did not take place within that day or two but throughout that whole week. Even though the prioritization was gradually diminishing the media attention lasted even during the following week. Even now it is there in the way the glamour gradually dwindles in a big carnival. The reason for our attention being drawn on this incident in the process of monitoring media is that it gives examples for identifying certain tendencies, ethical conditions and professional talents in the media behavior. It is a very short rough idea given here until a clearer monitoring is done at a later time.

The incident was monitored within the week between 18th May and 25th May. News relevant to the end of the war was being published from 18th of May onwards in the print and electronic media. The exceptional incident among them was the news that Prabhakaran was killed and the war was finished. That news was published on 19th May.

Only one among the Sinhala newspapers (Divaina) reported the death of Prabhakaran with a lead story, on 18th May. It was headlined as “Prabha has committed suicide”. But on one hand it does not mention about a suicide in the first four paragraphs thereby demonstrating a reportage devoid of the basic principle of news reporting called W5 and H1. The fifth paragraph says that the army has come to know that he will explode himself in such a way that nothing will be left from the body thereby killing the approaching army as well, if the army got close to the bunker where he is hidden. That is also merely hearsay. At the end of that news item there is a conjecture that the huge explosion which took place on 17th could be the suicide of Prabha, thereby indicating that there is a serious problem of professionalism or Editing. The same newspaper on 19th, as the lead story, does a reporting that would compel one to rethink of their professionalism. Unlike the reporting of the news on 18th, the first paragraph of the news on this day gives the essence of the news but the weaknesses of editing have become outstanding. The news is written in a weak sentence pattern that repeat the same point more than once. The reason for the weaknesses in this reporting can be the excitement in reporting a piece of news which is very exceptional and has a competition for reporting as well as in a way is a miracle to they themselves. But on an occasion when there was the attention not only of the entire country but the world as well, there would have been a more mature reporting. This is only one example.

All the other three Sinhala newspapers except the above paper (Lankadeepa, Lakbima, and Dinamina ) reported the news of the killing of Prabhakaran, with a lead story, on May 19th. The newspapers that allocated half, three fourths and two thirds had bestowed their festivity to the readers. Even though the news was so small they had used very large black fonts which are used on very special occasions. Some news papers had printed the letters in white in a black background and the subheadings in white letters (reverse) in the backgrounds of different colours. All the papers had published photographs (taken when they were living) of the leaders who were revealed as killed that day and a photograph of the dead body of Charles Anthony. Some newspapers had even gone to the extent of changing the Head Piece where the name of the newspaper is mentioned to express their ecstasy at this incident, in addition to the above space allocation for the headlines. One newspaper (Divaina) had cast its main headline for two days in the background of the coloured National Flag. Another newspaper (Lakbima) had printed its name in the middle of the map of Sri Lanka with coloured National Flag and the words “A Unitary State, One flag” on the left, and a photograph of the President on the right. It seems that through this type of headlines and page designs as well as adjectives and the usages employed in reporting news the papers have advertently or inadvertently put in their own view as well. It is important for these newspapers as well to examine these examples one by one, even though this is not time for that. The news of the finding of Prabhakaran’s dead body was reported by all the newspapers on 20th May as a front page news item. The main news of everybody that day was the speech made by the President addressing the nation. Only one newspaper (Divaina) had used the killing of Prabhakaran as the lead story that day as well. Except one Sunday newspaper (Ravaya) all others (Sunday Lankadeepa, Sunday Lakbima, Sunday Divaina, Silumina, Irudina, Rivira) had published special articles, photographs etc about the way the killing took place and gone on to publish the photographs of the dead body as well for their readers even though several days had passed by after the death. One newspaper (Sunday Lakbima) has reported the news of killing Prabhakaran as front page news while another (Irudina) has reported it as a lead story. Although they did not carry anything more than what was reported in the Daily papers, one report (Sunday Lakbima) has published the news mentioning the differences of reporting the incident and this indicate that even though the news was stale they had made an attempt to make a clarification of it to their readers. On the other hand the readers feel that it manifest the professional quality.

One of the English newspapers (Daily Mirror) also had published its name (Head Piece) within a background of coloured National flag. Under the name the phrase “One nation, One people” is mentioned. But that newspaper has not allocated the lead story for the news of 19th. The other two dailies have allocated the lead story for that. While the other papers published the news of finding Prabhakaran’s dead body as a front page news, one paper (Island) had allocated the Lead story for that. Some other Sunday English newspapers monitored (Sunday Times, Lakbima News, Observer, The Nation, SundayLeader) has published feature articles and photographs. Only three newspapers (Daily news, Island, Observer) have used adjectives and usages that forcefully incorporate their own views in to the news.

In contrast to the Sinhala and English newspapers Tamil papers have not attempted to incorporate their views through the adjectives and usages. Nevertheless it appears that, when reporting the death in the first two days, some newspapers (Sudar Oli) have attempted to say that it is not that acceptable, by collecting different other sources. It becomes clear by monitoring the other news items published in addition to the lead story. The four main Tamil newspapers (Sudar Oli, Virakesari, Thinakkural and Thinakaran) on May 19th have allocated the lead story to the news of the death of Prabhakaran while on 20th they have published the news of finding the dead body as a front page news item. But they have not allocated a large space in the front page like in the Sinhala newspapers and English dailies to report it in a festive manner. Although the headlines were used in the average size, big red letters were used only by the government owned newspaper (Thinakaran). Compared with the other newspapers photographs of Prabhakaran’s dead body were published only with the news on 20th. Although 28 newspapers were published throughout the week, only 6 photographs were published on the first day. All the 31 Sinhala newspapers published at least 27 big and small photographs. In 24 English newspapers there were 23 coloured photographs and 7 black and white photographs published.

On 19th the majority of the newspapers as well as electronic media reported that Prabhakaran was killed when he was attempting to flee by an ambulance. Some had mentioned it as by ‘a van’ and ‘a bullet proof van’ etc. It was mentioned that he died in an attack without definitely mentioning of how he was killed. As mentioned above one Sinhala paper (Divaina) reported before all the others that he committed suicide and later the same newspaper in one of their reports mentioned, in a derogatory tone, that “Prabhakaran who boasted that he would commit suicide, at the last moment, like a hero struggled to save his life like a coward and died in an army firing”. It says so even without referring to the fact that what it mentioned in a lead story has changed. The Tamil newspapers have avoided making the above mistake, to a certain extent, by not making the report on 19th of their own even by the headline. Except the government media newspaper (Thinakaran) all the other three papers put their headline on 19th in a way that means “The government claims that Prabhakaran was killed”. Ones own adjectives are not used. Even though all the newspapers report that the dead body of Prabhakaran who was killed in the battle that took place near Nanthikadal lagoon was found, none make any reference to the change of their own reportage on the previous day. As mentioned above, monitoring of this reportage and photographs is important to examine the omissions, mistakes, ignoring the accepted Conventions and perhaps violations of Ethics taking place in this way in media practice. Journalists can do a study by further investigating this news which was most read, viewed and heard in Sri Lanka, with examples. However we can get an idea of the ideologies that media tried to indoctrinate the social structure with, by monitoring the behaviour of electronic media as well as overall media process, in addition to the examples taken by us.

Seetha Ranjanee

Read the original Sinhala article as a PDF here.