Editorial - Lanka drops to lowest rank in press freedom index

In one of the darkest chapters for the free media in Sri Lanka, the Paris based Reporters Sans Frontiers—a widely respected international press freedom movement—said Sri Lanka had been ranked 165th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index for 2014. Sri Lanka, which ranked 162nd in this global index last year, dropped three places this year. The latest ranking is the lowest for a South Asian country, with India ranking at 140. Finland was ranked No.1 in this year’s index while the Netherlands and Norway were ranked second and third. Eritrea was the lowest ranked country in the index. The United States was placed 46th while Britain was placed 33rd.


 This lowest ever ranking of Sri Lanka comes amid continuing threats or suppression of media freedom with crime virtually becoming an industry where in many cases those who are expected to be combating crimes are found to be among those who are committing these violent crimes.  During the past seven years 18 journalists have been killed and last month was observed as ‘Black January’ for the media because of the 2009 murder of Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, the January 2010 disappearance of online journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda and several attacks on media outlets including the Jaffna based Tamil-language Uthayan newspaper.


  According to the New York based Human Rights Watch, the Sri Lankan government also continues to block public access to certain news websites critical of the regime.
 Before the Commonwealth Summit held here in November last year, the New York-based media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Commonwealth leaders to urge President Mahinda Rajapaksa to take effective measures to protect media freedom in Sri Lanka.
In an open letter to more than 50 leaders of the Commonwealth, the CPJ highlighted the grave concerns about the perilous climate of media freedom in the country and urged meaningful action.


Noting that critical or opposition journalists continue to face intense intimidation in Sri Lanka, the CPJ said, its research showed that at least 26 journalists had gone into exile in the past five years and it was one of the highest rates in the world.
Although work-related murders had declined since 2009, the killing of nine journalists in the past decade had gone unpunished, the media rights organisation said pointing out that it is one of the worst records.


According to the CPJ, Sri Lanka remains a highly unsafe place for journalists to work, especially when killers have impunity and the government is becoming increasingly repressive toward the free media and critical voices.
 For centuries, one of the pillars of democracy has been the free media with the others being the government, cabinet and parliament responsible and accountable to the people and an independent judiciary. During the past decade an especially after the abrogation of the 17th Amendment we have seen a major erosion of the foundation of all these pillars and many independent political analysts believe Sri Lanka is heading towards authoritarianism.


 With the government media being dominated by stooges and sycophants who are paid from public funds for bootlicking some leaders, and even some independent media institutions now bought over by business magnates close to the government, prospects for media freedom are like an obituary on a back page. Government leaders need to realize that if there is no freedom of the media and if the people are denied their fundamental rights to the freedom of information and expression the obituary notice might read like that of the famous D.E.M. O’cracy.