mekath type karala damma kiyai..mata news eke record ekak hambunoth ekath dannam..
TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2006
I was watching last night 7.00 pm Sirasa News First news cast, and noticed the following story (Which was a main headline of most of the online news sources, during the day). Since, it was the Sinhala news cast, I'd try to translate what I hear into English.
"Sri Lanka Airforce bomb a group of school girls"
"Reuters news agency reported today that Sri Lanka Airforce has laid bombs from air, to a group of school girls in [village name]. About 43 girls were dead, while 60 were injured. According to Reuters, they were attending first aids classed during that time"
Now, this was their top story for the day, and they directly accuse Sri Lanka Air force for the incident, based on a Reuters report; not even based on a report from their own news first reporter. And in the report, they (News first) NEVER mentioned this report was based on a statement released by LTTE or, was extracted from Tamilnet. They were confidently saying the news item was taken from Reuters.
Now lets turn to the original Reuters report what they were referring to. That, Reuters report was located here, but when I checked it this morning, only the title and the first line was there. The body description of the news report was removed from the original Reuters site.
Anyways, let's look at the Reuters original headline, on the above link.
TAMIL TIGER REBELS SAY SRI LANKA AIR FORCE BOMB HITS ORPHANAGE,
Mon 14 Aug 2006 12:37 AM ET
TAMIL TIGER REBELS SAY SRI LANKA AIR FORCE BOMB HITS ORPHANAGE, KILLS 43 SCHOOLGIRLS
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Now, what do we have here! Reuters is CLEARLY stating the news report is based on statements by LTTE spokesman. "TAMIL TIGER REBELS SAY......"
And if my memory is correct, they (Reuters) were saying the news was extracted from tamilnet, and the government has denied the charges.
But, where was the "TAMIL TIGER REBELS SAY......" part on Sirasa news first?
They have purposely omitted that part and reported this as an original report of Reuters. Because, they know people believe what Reuters say, than what tamilnet or Sirasa News first say. Is this responsible media handling?
To explain things further, take a look at the BBC report on the same news item. BBC, said to be a pro-LTTE international media institute according to many analysts. But, even BBC reports this story as "Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have accused .....". But, for Sirasa TV, it's very hard to say "LTTE says...." with regard to this news item.
In this post on Sachini Perera's blog, she has posted comment like this. I completely agree with it.
"Go to Google News and type Sri Lanka. There are so many web sites with this story and their only source is Tamilnet. This incident has already gained more than enough international publicity.
I hope the correct facts can be found soon. Whatever the truth may be, I feel sorry for these girls.
By sach, at 7:16 PM"
And adding to that, I would say "Sirasa News First" is giving national publicity for this story.
Isn't it clear enough? Whom actually Sirasa News first is protecting?
And, on the other hand if we look at how Sirasa News first report news items regarding LTTE attacks on Sri Lanka forces;take below examples.
"Media Center for National Security says, LTTE fired mortars on front defence line of Nagar Kovil Jafna"
Now, if they can use the term "Media Center for National Security says..." with news items regard to statements from that source, why can't (don't) they do the same for news items from LTTE sources?
And, another funny way of reporting by Sirasa News first;
"There have been mortars attacks to a STF camp in Baticalo this morning"
But, in the whole news story, they don't say a word about "who fired mortars"! They purposely omit "LTTE fired mortars at the STF camp". OK fine! That's there way of reporting. Then why the heck they say "Sri Lanka Airforce bomb this 7 that...." on some other news reports???
I have highlighted about how biased Sirasa News first towards terrorists, sometime back. But things are worse now. Now, they are actively supporting the propaganda war of tiger terrorists.
Some one might say "Sirasa is Pro-UNP, so they try to hurt the government". I raised the same argument about Prof Jayadeva Uyangoda on sittingnuts blog. But, sittingnut correctly said, "some one can be anit-Mahinda, but anti-LTTE as well"
Same thing apply to Sirasa TV. Even TNL is a TV channel labeled as pro-UNP. But, I haven't seen a single news item on TNL news, supporting the tigers or praising them. TNL is pro-UNP, but anti-LTTE I would say. But, what's up with Sirasa? They are clearly acting as the national propaganda mechanism for LTTE, while tamilnet & BBC do the international job.
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P.S.
None of the other Sri Lankan TV channels reported this news like this. They clearly stated the news report is based on Tamilnet, and they clearly stated, "LTTE says....".
This include news on Rupavahini & ITN (of course) and, Swarnavahini, TNL, TV Lanka, & Derana. What's wrong with Sirasa then?
