With the bitter civil war between the separatist Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sinhalese majority in its 14th year, the government
has tended to restrict press coverage of the conflict through a variety
of means, including direct censorship and control of information entering
the country. Since the harsh censorship strictures of 1995, local and international
activists have pressured the government to relax hard-line restrictions.
In the last year, most forms of direct
censorship have been lifted. Meanwhile, criminal defamation laws are
still used to silence dissent against the governing regime and its policies,
while shielding public officials from scrutiny by the media.
War correspondents struggled to file independent reports, as they have since 1995 when the Defense Ministry introduced regulations preventing the press from independently visiting specified war zones mostly in northern and eastern provinces.
Local journalists allied with the Free Media Movement in Sri Lanka routinely
demonstrated against state-directed and state-tolerated hostility toward
the independent media and demanded greater press freedom in Sri Lanka.
In May, a landmark Supreme Court ruling declared a controversial Broadcasting
Authority Bill unconstitutional. The measure would have given political
authorities unrestricted control over the broadcast media. Journalists
anticipated an improved media culture as a result of the ruling.
In developments to safeguard the press, in November, three policemen
faced charges for the 1990 murder of Richard de Zoysa, an editor and Colombo
correspondent for the Rome-based InterPress Service. Though the previous
UNP regime denied police involvement in the killing, the PA government
reopened the case and has been pursuing investigations since coming to
power.
The Sri Lankan press was guardedly optimistic, following President
Kumaratunga’s appointment of Mangala Samaraweera as Minister of Posts,
Telecommunications, and Media in June. Known as a left-of-center liberal,
Samaraweera has promised more freedom to the media and, as a gesture of
goodwill, approved 13 new radio and television station licenses in mid-June.
Among new measures Samaraweera announced are the closure of the state-controlled
news agency, Lankapuvath, and the adoption of a code of conduct for journalists
in the state-owned media institutions. In addition, after years of censorship,
the government asked local television stations not to censor news about
Sri Lanka from foreign news broadcasts carried locally.
Samaraweera also promoted the repeal of the infamous Parliamentary Privileges
Special Provisions Act of 1978, which empowered the parliament to fine
and imprison journalists who allegedly insulted a member of parliament
or the procedures of the House. In a related development, parliament appointed
a select committee to recommend changes to the laws governing the media,
including the repeal or amendment of legislation which poses limitations
on freedom of expression. The government has resisted changes in harsh
criminal defamation statutes, however, and journalists remain wary of policies
which could threaten press freedom.