State Print Media - Monitoring report

Some observations of political reportage of state owned news papers over the one week period ending 7th February.

Methodology

§ The classification of News Items, Features, Columns, Editorials, Cartoons and Photos under the categories of President, Prime Minister, Ministers / MPs and Opposition was based on the forum provided to each by the article. Reports, articles as well as propaganda items were classified under these categories. § Articles on Government development projects, essentially focussed on the project as opposed to providing a forum for a Minister/MP etc, were classified under Development. Articles on development projects which essentially functioned as a forum to the Prime Minister, Ministers, MPs etc, have been classified under Prime Minister, Ministers and MPs, based on the forum provided. § Articles on Strikes, Protests and Civilian Issues having a negative impact on the government have been classified under Social Issues. § Articles which did not show any overt political leaning which were instead general political critiques, have been classified under Other Political . § The area given to each article has been measured in Square Centimeters and tabulated under the above categories, following which the percentage representation was calculated to provide the final breakdowns.

General Overview

§ Front page lead news stories in favor of the government : had 4, while Dinanima and had two each. § Front page lead news stories critical of government : None § Bust photographs of government ministers and MPs: Daily News and The Observer had 37; and Silumina had 21; Thinakaran had 2 § Photographs of the president: Daily News and Observer had 06; Dinamina and Silumina had 05; Thinakaran had 01 § Photographs of the Prime Minister: Daily News and Observer had 06; Dinamina and Silumina had 08; Thinakaran had 06

1 § Captioned Individual Photographs covering opposition activities: None § News items on government political activities: Daily News and The Observer had 48; Dinamina and Silumina had 49; Thinakaran had 70 § News items on opposition activities: Daily news and The Observer had07; Dinamina and Silumina had 11; Thinakaran had 24 § News items on government development activities: Daily News and The Observer had 27; Dinamina and Silumina had 26; Thinakaran had 68 § Cartoons critical of government: None § News Items are in general of press statements or of propaganda nature; Investigative or critical perspective is seldom present. Even a positive criticism of government activities is hard to find in news reporting.

Daily News and The Observer

§ Reportage of News was minimal and untimely in comparison to the other daily papers, making Daily News the least Newsworthy of the daily papers:

1st Feb – Release of BIA suspects was the lead story of Island but received no coverage in the Daily News.

Both and Island carried front page pictures of the UGC issue while the Daily News carried no pictures or articles. 2nd Feb - The Udathalawinna massacre which was lead [322 cm2], was not covered in the Daily News.

The President’s response to the PSD issue was the Daily Mirror lead [494 cm2 ] while the Island allocated 443 cm2 to the same. The Daily News allocated 360 cm2 to the story.

The North East polls issue was given significant coverage in both Daily Mirror and Island while the Daily News carried an article on the Local Government polls which made no mention of the NE polls issue.

6th Feb - The Udathalawinna probe was covered both in Daily Mirror and Island while no coverage was given to it in the Daily News.

The IGP’s Extension issue was not covered in the Daily News while the Island allocated 338 cm2 to the story. The Daily Mirror also provided no coverage to the same.

§ Four out of Seven Lead Stories were based on statements made by Ministers on development efforts of the Government and the 100 Day Program, while stories more deserving of the lead slot were given less prominence:

2 1st Feb – The Daily News lead on Apparel Exports, PTA with US [300 cm2 ] was covered by both Island and Daily Mirror but was only allocated 84 cm2 on the front page and 480 cm2 in the Business page respectively.

2nd Feb - The Daily Mirror lead was on the President’s statement regarding the PSD issue, while the Island lead was on the Udathalawinna massacre. The Daily News lead was on a statement regarding economic reforms the UNF Government expects to implement, made to IMF and World Bank officials by Minister Moragoda.

§ Most articles including those on development and peace were sourced to the Government, Ministers or MPs. § Not many [if any at all] articles criticized or questioned Government or Ministerial actions. § Large coverage was given to the 100 Day Program. § Coverage given to the Opposition was minimum. § No real forum for political debate. The views portrayed are by and large one sided.

Dinamina and Silumina

§ Coverage of the opposition political parties was minimal.

§ Two full pages were allocated for coverage on the 100 Day Programme in Dinamina on both 1st and 2nd of February. Silumina had allocated 1/2 page for the same on the 3rd of February. Similar prominence in coverage was not given to the 100 Day programme in the other Sinhala newspapers.

§ Coverage was given by Dinamina, to Development issues and statements by Ministers, which were not covered other Sinhala newspapers:

On 1 February - 500 PA "Pradeshiya" leaders cross over to UNP - Karu Jayasuriya - One Million lands to be divided amongst the public - Rajitha Senaratne - 90 lorries carrying essential goods to the Wanni within seven days - A power distribution depot for Vavuniya at the cost of 240 million.

§ The lead story of Silumina on 3rd February ' Millions spent on a power plant which will not be built, Government to conduct investigations ' was not covered by the other Sinhala newspapers.

3 § Significant coverage was given to the District Conference of the Muslim Congress by other Sinhala papers, while no coverage was given to the same by Dinamina.

§ Reporting on an alleged attack on the Chairman of the Ja-Ela Cooperative Society (PA), Dinamina alocated more space to the statement made by Minister Jayalath Jayawardena refuting the allegations, while less space was allocated to the statement by the Chairman of the Cooperative Society.

§ The JVP protest march against the rise in cost of living, which was given coverage in other Sinhala newspapers, was not covered by Dinamina.

§ On a positive note, the protests by Mahapola recipients [1st February] and the Unemployed Graduates Union [7th February], were given front page coverage [including pictures] in Dinamina.

§ Adequate coverage was also given to the issue of a petition filed against the IGP extension and the Millenium City issue.

Thinakaran

§ The coverage of news which is unfavourable to the Government was minimum in Thinakaran:

The lead story of the February 4th Sudaroli ‘Government prepares for war while continuing peace talk’ was also given coverage in and , but was not covered in Thinakaran.

A protest carried out in front of the Sri Lankan embassy in Los Angeles demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Wickramasinghe, which was covered in both Thinakkural and Sudaroli on the 6th of February, was not covered in Thinakaran and Virakesari.

§ Large coverage was given to Government activities and Development projects, particularly the 100 Day programme.

§ Space allocated to the Opposition was minimum.

§ A general trend was seen in terms of delay in the reportage of news:

The lead story of the Thinakkural on 1st February was on Ashley Wills' Visit to Wanni, was also covered by Virakesari and Sudaroli on the same day. Thinakaran carried the story on 2nd of February.

4 The JVP protest against the rise in cost of living, which was also covered by Thinakkural and Virakesari, on 1st February. But Thinakarn carried it on only the 2nd .

The president’s statement on the recruitment of child soldiers by LTTE was carried by Virakesari, Thinakkural and Sudaroli, on the 6th. . Thinakaran didn’t carried it on 6th or 7th.

Sunanda Deshapriya Uditha Senaratne Media Monitoring Unit Media Monitoring Unit CPA CPA

5 Total area used for poltical & election related news, features,columns, editorials, cartoon & photos in Dinamina, Thinakaran, Daily news from 1st to 7th February 2002

News paper President Prime minister Minsters / MPs Oppsition Development Social Issues Other Political Total

Dinamina sq.sm. 2927 3595 14448 2960 7323 2163 17582 50998 % 5.74 7.05 28.33 5.80 14.36 4.24 34.48 100

sq.sm. 1931 1647 12966 498 6376 1566 11839 36823 Daily News % 5.24 4.47 35.21 1.35 17.32 4.25 32.15 100

752 2901 14744 2382 10164 5052 5309 41304 Thinakaran sq.sm. % 1.82 7.02 35.70 5.77 24.61 12.23 12.85 100