Report of the Election Media Monitoring Team

Sri Lankan Parliamentary Elections December 2000 REPORT OF MEDIA MONITORING TEAM OF CPU IN DURING ELECTIONS IN OCTOBER 2000

he Commonwealth Press Union put together and sent a five-person team to T Sri Lanka for nearly three weeks to observe the conduct of the print media during the last parliamentary elections held there in October 2000. The members of the delegation were drawn from five different Commonwealth countries - Uganda, India, Malaysia, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, bringing a wealth of professional experience and insights to the assignment.

The CPU was partnered in this unique and pioneering initiative by the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka, an independent body comprising of ’s leading edi- tors. Without their co-operation and acquiescence, this assignment could not have succeeded.

Mention must also be made of the co-operation given by the Sri Lanka govern- ment in general and its information department and the diplomatic missions in particular. At no stage was there the slightest hesitation in giving information or indeed facilitating the task of this mission. The government had already opened its doors to various observer missions, including from the European Union and the Commonwealth and the media monitoring team was accorded the status of visit- ing media-men, with all the rights and privileges therein. Right from the beginning the office of the competent authority responded to every request with alacrity and without this assistance, the monitoring team’s task would have become difficult.

OBJECTIVE & METHODOLOGY

he objective was very clear and focused: to observe how the print media, T both government-controlled and independent, covered various aspects of the election campaign.

The terms of reference for the mission stated the its job was:

¾ To assess the newspaper coverage of the election campaign

¾ To assess the professionalism of the coverage

¾ To assess whether the coverage is sufficiently informed thus allowing the elec- torate to make a fully informed decision on who to vote for

¾ To monitor and document fully incidents of harassment, coercion or intimi- daion of journalists and publishing houses the government of the day. The pa- ¾ To assess whether the independent pers from this stable are among the media reflects a genuinely bal- highest circulating publications in the anced view of candidates, mem- country. bers, parties and policies Upali - a leading privately owned ¾ To assess whether the State-owned publishing house which publishes the press reflects a reasonable cover- only other major English daily, The age of non-PA candidates, mem- Island as well as a Sinhala paper. bers, parties and policies Wijeya - this group owns the most The mission was very clear that it well regarded Sunday English paper, would not in any way get involved in The Sunday Times, as well as the the actual coverage of the campaign- highly respected Sinhala daily Lanka- ing. The idea was to observe and deepa, apart from an English morn- monitor, not influence. To the very inger Mirror, which has only recently end, there was no diversion from that turned from being a tabloid to a tenet; this needs to be seen in the broadsheet. context of the fact that all the moni- tors spent over two weeks closely In addition, one monitor was attached working with journalists from various to the Sunday Leader, which, though newspaper groups, in and outside the only six years old, has emerged as a newsroom. high-profile English weekly, not the least because of the stories it has bro- As there was no precedent for this ken and its well-publicised battles kind of initiative, the group had to with the government. The monitors chart out its own course and method- also spent time with other papers, no- ology. tably with the Virakesri group, pub- lishers of the leading Tamil daily of Each of the four monitors, barring the same name and which also has an the team leader, who co-ordinated the English weekend paper, the Weekend entire effort, was attached to one of Express. The monitors also routinely the three major newspaper groups, met journalists and editors from other with some given the additional re- papers such as , a well- sponsibility of working with other, respected Sinhala weekly and Thiru- smaller publications. kural, a relatively new Tamil paper, as The three major groups are:- well as other publications.

Associated Newspapers Limited All the major groups have English as (popularly called Lake House) - the well as non-English - Sinhala or Tamil state-controlled newspaper group or both - newspapers in their stable. which was nationalised in 1973 and To monitor the non-English publica- still continues to be in the hands of tions, we set up a three-pronged sys- tem to get the best possible analysis: two translators (neither of them be- operative and allowed us free access ing journalists) were hired, a regular to each and every department and newspaper translation service was en- editor, allowing us to liase freely with gaged and there was close co- the staff. ordination with independent individu- als as well as with prominent NGOs Each team member gave a weekly re- involved in media monitoring, such as port of their observations and experi- INFORM and Centre for Policy Al- ence and the team held one, some- ternatives.. times two daily meetings to discuss the day ahead and to take stock of the The four monitors, who began their day gone by. task immediately after arriving in Sri Lanka around the 24th of September, FINDINGS were rotated after the first week, to ensure objectivity as well as to get Though naturally there are many dif- more than one point of view. ferences between each newspaper’s structure and approach and the way They attended office each day at their they covered the elections, there are respective newspapers, attending some general comments which can be meetings and editorial conferences made about the Sri Lankan print me- (which are not the norm in Sri dia: Lankan newspapers), going out on as- signments - in and out of - • Newspapers are by and large and interacting with reporters, sub- poorly staffed, with less than editors and senior staff. optimum number of journal- ists and even fewer trained A monitor could not be sent in the journalists beginning to Associated newspapers, or Lake House as it is popularly • There are serious infrastruc- known, which is government- tural problems and constraints managed and which controls some of in most newspapers - low the largest circulating publications in budgets, lack of computers etc. the country. This was mainly because and this shows up in the over- some of the group’s editors are not all quality of the newspapers members of the Guild and also be- cause the Lake House management • Journalists are paid badly and told us it had not been informed for- therefore it is not a very attrac- mally by the Guild about this mission tive choice as a profession. and what was expected of them and Bright young graduates tend to hence would not be any position to go into other professions, or if participate. they do become journalists, leave after a few years. This was done the week after and af- ter that, the group was very co- In terms of coverage, these weak- accused in an incident of firing on a nesses reflect in the poor quality of convoy of opposition candidates, was writing and reporting in papers, played down by government newspa- though many Sri Lankans point out pers and when the three accused were that non-English papers are closer to produced in front of a magistrate, their readership and often do have Lake House’s Sinhala daily professionally competent writing and simply blanked out the news. reportage. State owned papers would carry sto- But, the one strongly observed aspect ries that showed the ruling dispensa- of the Sri Lankan media, one that be- tion in a flattering light and run down comes apparent even to the casual the main opposition parties, often in reader, is the strong polarisation of language laced with invective. views which in turn leads to partisan and one-sided reporting. This goes A sample headline for a lead story beyond mere editorial stance or point about an opposition candidate, a den- of view, and spills over from the edi- tist, who made allegations about the torial page into the news sections. President: “UNP dentist opens verbal Newspapers are strongly “anti-this” sewer.” Serious allegations were made or “pro-that”, and tend to equate per- against the leader of the opposition in sonalities with issues. Hence, an “anti- the state-owned media while his de- government” newspaper would not nial hardly found place anywhere. find anything redeemable not only in government policy but also in the If the government papers carried re- President personally and in her entire ports of speeches or statements of cabinet. opposition leaders at all, these were used almost always in the inside The polarisation is not limited to po- pages; the front pages were reserved litical views, though that is the most for proclamations by ruling party can- obvious divide, but also on ethnic is- didates, statements by ministers who sues. This reflects in coverage at all were also contesting, stories ridiculing times, but during the elections took the opposition and, occasionally, as- on a sharper hue. Selection and cover- tounding allegations by government age of stories therefore is dependant functionaries about leading opposi- on the editorial policy of the paper, tion figures, without even a single line and such bias, if it can be termed of rebuttal. The Prime Minister’s alle- that, is reflected by omission as much gation that the leader of the opposi- as by commission. What the papers tion had a “secret understanding” do not carry, in other words, is as sig- with the terrorist organisation, the nificant as what they do. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was carried baldly as the For example, a sensational incident truth and repeated ad nauseum. involving the son of a senior govern- ment minister, who was among the In addition, ruling party ministers, who were also candidates, got a free tion and also the President person- ride because their ministries released ally - though much of the gossip is full page advertisements (in govern- fairly innocuous and is fairly normal ment papers, naturally), extolling the journalistic activity, its placement and achievements of the respective de- selectivity in taking on only one side partments, thus giving them free pub- gives the impression of unfairness. licity paid for by the tax-payer. It must be pointed out that both The privately owned media too was Leader and Ravaya are among the pa- not without blemishes, lack of objec- pers that have earned for themselves tivity even on the news pages being a reputation of strong investigative the most obvious one. Some papers, journalism, often treading in areas like the Sunday Leader, an erstwhile that other privately owned publica- supporter of the ruling party but now tions would hesitate to venture in, but completely on the other side, carried their approach has been largely selec- hardly any story that was even re- tive. motely favourable to the PA.A glance at any issue of that period would con- The Ravaya, a Sinhala weekly, was so- firm that impression, but this was ber in its tone and approach in its also borne out by a study carried out criticism, but did not carry many fa- by the media monitoring unit of the vourable pieces on the PA during the Centre for Policy Alternatives. elections. This has to be seen in the context of the complete support It found that in the six issues preced- given by the editor and the paper to ing the elections, the Leader carried 3 the PA in the 1994 elections, when, features which were “favourable” to like many other journalists and news- the PA, as compared to 41 features papers, the Ravaya had come out that were “unfavourable.” Conversely, openly in support of the PA’s presi- it carried 6 features favourable to the dential candidate. The falling out be- UNP, and none at all which were un- tween the paper’s editor and the rul- favourable. Of the six editorials that ing government was a public affair, were written in that period, 5 were with the President openly accusing against the PA and the remaining 1 him in a widely broadcast interview, was for the UNP. of having accepted a huge sum of money from her. Such one-sided coverage could still be ascribed to editorial policy, but for the This is not to say that there was no fact that the criticism, of the opposi- professional coverage at all - indeed, tion by the state-owned media and of papers like The Sunday Times, The the President and her party by the in- Island and several non-English news- dependent media, often bordered on papers like Lankadipa and the personal. The Leader carries a were largely balanced in their news front page gossip column every week coverage. The Weekend Express, a which lampoons the ruling dispensa- relatively small weekend paper with all its resource limitations in terms of • The LTTE and the war against staff, tried to give comprehensive cov- it erage to all major and significant po- • Political allegations and coun- litical parties. The Sunday Observer, ter-allegations despite being a government paper, • The economy was broad-based in its reporting. There was another issue, that has But there are other systemic lacuna in been a dominant theme of the politi- the media that become discernible cal and social landscape of Sri Lanka when they are closely analysed. There for many years - devolution of power is a kind of “ethnic”` polarisation in and constitutional changes - but as far the media that, many Sri Lankan ana- as these elections were concerned, it lysts say, is a reflection of the social had virtually disappeared into the divide. The Tamil papers, for exam- background. This is surprising be- ple, saw the elections through Tamil cause the President had made no se- eyes—i.e. focusing mainly on Tamil cret of her intention to turn the next politics and on the main parties only parliament into a constituent assem- to the extent of how they perceive is- bly to discuss and pass a new consti- sues related to Tamils, while the Sin- tution. hala papers tend to give a “mainstream” Sinhala viewpoint, Violence - or the fear of it - domi- largely ignoring Tamil parties. “They nated the headlines almost everyday. could be covering elections in two If it wasn’t perpetrated, it was spoken different countries,” was the opinion about. The opposition had turned the of a local analyst. phrase “free and fair elections” into a kind of mantra, successfully selling One example—disputes between rival the idea that the ruling coalition was Tamil parties, including violence, were indulging in violence and if it did win, lead stories in Tamil papers but barely it would be because there had been got a mention in the Sinhala papers large scale rigging with official con- of the day. The military operations in nivance. The presence of monitoring the North and North-East were often groups, local and international, and considered more important than the the reports of clashes among sup- elections and “community” affairs porters of rival political parties gave more critical than the political proc- credence to these perceptions and ess. though Colombo itself remained calm, there were reports of violence ISSUES from the central provinces and the hill regions. The issues that dominated the elec- tion coverage were: More than the actual violence - which in the end lead to the death of 11 • Violence people and injuries to many more - were the fears of election day vio- LTTE. The organisation remained on lence and fraudulent tactics like bal- the front pages for most of the pre- lot-stuffing. The newspapers reflected polling period. these fears in their own way - the gov- ernment media did not mince words The state-owned papers highlighted when it came to pointing fingers, military successes in the run up to the clearly indicating that it was the main elections—in one case, the recovery opposition party that was responsible of a small town was mentioned in for raising tensions. glowing terms, even though its initial loss had not been reported due to How one-sided the coverage was censorship and the battle had reduced could be seen in the reporting of the most of the town’s buildings to rub- about a mob that has ble. gathered outside a police station in Kandy to demand that perpetrators of a violent act (among which the son Allegations and counter- of a high-powered official was alleged allegations - Making wild charges to have been involved) be arrested. and rhetoric is part and parcel of the While the other papers reported the heat and dust of an election campaign entire incident, for the Daily news and Sri Lanka is no different. But in only the slogan-shouting of the the media, if a paper had allegations crowd (of mainly UNP supporters) about one party, often it did not have was important. This was bias and un- the rebuttal or the clarification from objectivity at its worst. the accused. Pro-government and anti-government but pro-opposition The LTTE - the Tamil Tigers have papers at the opposite side of the me- been a major presence in Sri Lanka dia spectrum, viz The Daily News for over a decade and a half and this and the Sunday Leader were the two time round too they were a “bizarre truly blatant examples of this ten- fourth force” as the President so suc- dency and often they were mirror- cinctly put it. Their shadowy presence images of each other. The Island, showed up in election coverage in all gave space to all sides, but it was clear sorts of ways—their alleged links that it was no friend of the govern- with the leader of the opposition, (a ment and the opposition parties, in- big story for the official papers) their cluding some smaller parties like the exchange of letters with the govern- chauvinistic Sihala Urumaya got tre- ment about a peace plan (seen by mendous play. strongly anti-government papers as a kind of double-speak by the Presi- Economy - The mainstream English dent) the difficulties in campaigning papers, including prestigious ones, in areas where they are a dominant tended to look at most parties and a presence and also in the suicide bomb wide range of issues, but considering attacks at public rallies, an operation that the most important issue - at that bore all the hallmarks of the least overtly - was the economy, there was barely any studied analysis of ei- dering on the scurrilous, carried ther the issue itself or how various blandly and without any kind of cor- parties saw it in their manifestos. (A roboration or even a clarification word here about the manifestos - here from the other side. The concept of appeared to be a lot of cynicism the political economy, or covering is- about manifestos and whether any sue-based rather than personality- party had any intention of fulfilling based politics is woefully lacking. This any of its electoral promises.) The has ended up in politicising every is- economy was not covered on the sue by both politicians and the media news or the edit pages in any signifi- cant manner - neither in macro- One reason for this is the systemic economic terms (though the Daily problem of lack of experienced po- News occasionally assured its readers litical correspondents. With meagre that all was well with it) nor in lay staff resources, very few papers have terms, to explain to the ordinary even a Political Editor, leave alone a reader why the price of bread had team of political correspondents. The been shooting up. Editor is the de-facto political editor, not only laying down the political line Even on the question of voter educa- but also doubling up as a columnist tion - facts and figures about various and/or vetting political copy. Sri constituencies, programmes of vari- Lankan newspapers accord tremen- ous parties and an explanation of the dous importance to politics and to complex voting system for new vot- coverage of the larger political parties ers - the coverage of papers seemed and a close supervision of what gets thin on the ground. in becomes very crucial.

The Daily News among the English But another reason for the dearth of papers, along with its sister language middle-level political journalists is publications, offered the most com- that very few people stay on in the prehensive backgrounder to the elec- profession for the long term. The tions, carrying a daily, full-page, general tendency is for young people, graphics-intensive ready reckoner that often just out of their A levels, to join gave details of previous voting pat- a newspaper for two or three years terns, profiles of the candidates (done while pursuing other academic or ca- largely in an objective manner) as well reer options, and then leave for better as other details that could be of value paying jobs in advertising, PR or even to the reader/voter. banks and the like. Journalism not only does not pay well, as compared For the most part, however, newspa- to other professions, but also does pers tended to confuse covering poli- not hold much glamour, or, indeed, tics with politicking, i.e. “mud- “social prestige.” (Interestingly, many slinging”, allegations and counter- senior journalists and editors too, allegations by rival politicians and pursue other professions on the side). statements of politicians, often bor- (Many journalists also complained sible time - which meant that rural that though their newspapers were coverage was sketchy. very profitable, and the groups that owned them had other, profitable Perhaps the most noticeable and also business interests, not much invest- disturbing feature of the media, espe- ment by way of infrastructure or per- cially during the pre-election period, sonnel found its way into newspapers. was the lack of space given to the This was borne out by the empirical concerns of the common Sri Lankan. observations of the monitors, though These elections, like many others, in some groups there was an under- were about the price of bread, the ris- standing on the part of the manage- ing cost of fuel and the all round ment that something more needed to spurt in the cost of living. These were be done by way of training) issues clearly reflected in the letter’s columns of newspapers and, in pri- Hence, newspapers are forced to de- vate conversations with ordinary Sri ploy youngsters to cover politics and Lankans. it is not uncommon to see bright but inexperienced journalists in their 20s, Sri Lankans in general are a very po- setting out, with little or no litically aware lot and while they are mentoring, to cover campaigns or more than aware of the importance parliament or to interview leaders and of resolving the war and understand write about the critical political issues the debates on devolution, it is the of the day. Indeed, in one newspaper, bread and butter issues that con- the political correspondent confessed cerned them the most. Even simple she got all her stories on the phone journalistic techniques like getting vox and did not like to meet politicians pop quotes were not used in any sig- because “they would then expect fa- nificant manner - the coverage of the vourable coverage.” elections remained from the point of Even so, the more experience journal- view of the contestants, not the vot- ists and editors managed to use their ers. Even language papers reporters ingenuity to send out reporters to confirmed that they were covering the various constituencies and districts to elections by talking about the candi- provide at least a glimpse of the elec- dates rather than the needs of the tion mood and flavour outside of Co- people. (Editors also tend to often lombo. In the main though the cover- write about other editors and even age tended to concentrate on the during this short three week period, capital city, where most of the leaders there were many digs made by editors were based and which was easy and against their peers in print). accessible (and cheap) to cover. This “incestuous” tendency, to use a Journalists were sent out on whistle- word most often employed by Sri stop tours outside the city - as much Lankans themselves to talk about the to save money as to get the reporter inner circle of media, politicians, back in the office in the shortest pos- owners and the elite in general, results in an alienation of the ordinary United Liberation Force (TULF) and reader, which is exacerbated by the the National Unity Alliance, com- high price of newspapers. A daily posed of Muslim parties that got con- English newspaper costs Rs 12, which siderable coverage in the papers. The is much more than the (inflated) price many marginal parties that had of a loaf of bread—language papers sprung up in recent months did not are only marginally less costly. This obviously get much space, given that makes newspapers unaffordable for a they were new and had little or no in- large section of the populace and in fluence or following. the villages, one paper is shared among 8-10 people. It is an ironical However, an exception seems to have situation in a highly literate country been made in the case of the Sihala like Sri Lanka that between them, the Urumaya, an outfit set up barely three daily papers of the country don’t even months before the elections. This add up to one million copies, while party, formed by breakaway constitu- over 90 percent of the adult popula- ents from the two larger parties and tion can read and write. consisting, in the main, of profession- als, stands for “Sinhala rights”, often Newspapers are seen as luxuries, be- using blatantly racist terminology to cause of their high pricing, making promote its main idea, that the rights them even more remote from the of the majority Sinhala people have general populace. Thus, to expect that been trampled upon by successive people would buy more than one pa- governments. per to get a better and more balanced idea of what was happening in the The party’s line seemed to have struck country, would be futile. a chord with some newspapers and the party got tremendous coverage, COVERAGE OF SMALLER totally out of proportion to its size, PARTIES track record and ideology. One paper carried a reference to it almost every ne of the aspects we were day, and just before the elections, had Okeenly looking out for was the no less than four big articles in one coverage of the smaller parties. In edition alone, a favour not extended these elections, a large number of even to the bigger parties, let alone to new parties emerged and a record other smaller parties, especially those 5000+ candidates, from 29 parties, representing Tamils. contested. Indeed, while a Tamil-owned English Apart from the PA and the UNP, paper, Weekend Express, in its series there were some smaller parties like on interviews with political leaders, the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna, an gave over a full page to the Urumaya, erstwhile left-radical group that is Tamil parties, including some which now in the mainstream, the Tamil have been in politics for a long time, got similar coverage in the Sinhala or English press. • The general populace would be justified in claiming that it was CONCLUSIONS not served well by media cov- erage and that it got one sided he following are some of the coverage and unsubstantiated T conclusions drawn from a close allegations when it wanted observation and monitoring of the news and analyses print media during the pre-election campaign in October 2000. RECOMMENDATIONS • The Sri Lankan media’s cover- age of the run up to the elec- ne of the heartening features of tions was patchy, to say the Othe media in Sri Lanka—and least—in style, substance, con- this cuts across the “government- tent and approach - but some controlled/privately owned” divide— papers did maintain high pro- is that most practitioners, publishers fessional standards and policy-makers admit that there are serious systemic flaws in the pro- • There was clearly a polarisation fession which need to be set right, of coverage in obvious and not and on an urgent basis. Many of these so obvious ways. Many papers problems showed up, in stark relief appeared divided in the “pro- sometimes, during the pre-election government” and anti- coverage. The lack of training, of government camps, with the proper mentoring and guidance, of former segment almost totally infrastructure etc. cannot be changed comprising of government- overnight. A medium and long-term owned publications approach is needed to bring about a radical shift in the overall quality of • Issues and personalities more the Sri Lankan print media. often than not got mixed up Some steps that might help, include: • News reports more than occa- sionally had the flavour of edi- • Providing proper training to torial comment young Sri Lankans entering journalism. This can be done • Criticism tended to focus on by setting up an independent the personal, with a few papers and autonomous training insti- (including, it must be pointed tute which focuses on produc- out, papers controlled by the ing highly-trained, profession- government) throwing all pro- ally qualified journalists for ab- fessional standards to the sorption into the local media winds • Training journalists however is of the overall standard of jour- not enough—they need to be nalism in the country. While kept back into the profession. the government attacks the pri- Better salaries are one part of vately owned media for bias, its it—giving them respect and own record is very poor and pride in what they do will also this vicious circle needs to be contribute towards making broken. them want to continue as jour- nalists. Sidharth Bhatia, Team Leader • Changing laws which are detri- India mental to the practice of good Zainon Ahmed journalism. Criminal defama- Malaysia tion is one such law that has Ms Linda Christmas been abused over the years, United Kingdom and even though the govern- Joel Kibazo ment’s claim that things are Uganda much better for journalists Wilf Mbanga than they were during the pre- Zimbabwe vious dispensation, many jour- nalists operate under the threat of being sued under criminal December 2000 laws or even of being verbally and physically attacked. This is also a deterrent to those who want to become journalists.

• Broadening the ownership of Lake House—this was a com- mitment given by the govern- ment when it nationalised the company in 1973. Since then, various governments have paid lip service to the idea, but have refused to move , often using the fig leaf of wanting a voice to counter hostile gov- ernment propaganda. The gov- ernment’s refusal to let go of Lake House and the unprofes- sional manner in which the pa- pers are run contribute in no small measure to the lowering