We, the representatives of journalists’ unions and associations in the South Asian region, meeting on the platform of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN), express our deepest concern over continuing violations of media rights [...]]]> The following statement was issued by the South Asia Media Solidarity Network at its meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 6-7.

We, the representatives of journalists’ unions and associations in the South Asian region, meeting on the platform of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN), express our deepest concern over continuing violations of media rights in Sri Lanka, and call on the government of the country to uphold the international human rights covenants it is party to.

We are shocked by the August 31 verdict of the Colombo High Court, sentencing J.S. Tissainayagam, a widely respected journalist and human rights defender, to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment on terrorism charges. We note that world press freedom bodies and the diplomatic community have with virtually one voice condemned the trial and sentencing of this Tamil journalist, whose concerns embraced all causes and all ethnic communities of Sri Lanka.

An already bad situation for journalism in Sri Lanka has turned markedly worse this year, with the daylight murder of Lasantha Wickramatunge, editor of the Sunday Leader, in a busy suburb of Colombo on January 8. Investigations into his murder have made little progress, amid a number of contradictory statements from the government and security agencies.

The month of January saw an arson attack on the facilities of the independent broadcaster Sirasa TV and a knife attack on a newspaper editor and his wife in Colombo. There was in the same month a near-lethal assault on a newspaper editor in the eastern town of Batticaloa and an arson attack on his premises.

In February, Sudar Oli editor N. Vidyatharan was snatched from a family function in a kidnap-style arrest. He was publicly charged with being a “terrorist” by top officials of the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry. Held without charge for three months, he was released unconditionally on court orders.

On June 1, Poddala Jayanta, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association (SLWJA), was seized by what seemed a professional hit squad as he was on his way home in a suburb of Colombo. He was hustled into a van and brutally assaulted, suffering multiple fractures, contusions and other injuries, before being thrown out, unconscious, in an open field. Jayanta had been attacked by name over state-owned print and electronic media over the preceding weeks, for his alleged sympathy for terrorism.

These aside, there have been a number of verbal threats against journalists and media workers by ministers and other senior persons in government.

Several of Sri Lanka’s most well-known journalists have left the country fearing for their lives. We express our solidarity with these journalists and urge the international community to be attentive to their needs for honourable treatment in secure locations, till conditions are appropriate for their safe return to their home country. We believe that this is a responsibility that all countries in South Asia – especially India, the largest country with the longest established democratic traditions – will particularly have to bear.

We request the institutions that employed the exiled journalists to support them to the extent that their capacity permits, and allow them on their return to Sri Lanka to resume their profession without any impediment.

This year has also witnessed an escalating trend of verbal abuse, followed by administrative action against journalists.

On February 1, the Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, issued a warning that foreign media organisations would face “dire consequences” and be “chased out” of the country if they did not behave “responsibly”. He accused three international news organisations in particular of partisan reporting on the situation regarding civilian casualties and suffering in areas of conflict between government forces and Tamil separatist insurgents. Since then, the residence permit of the bureau chief of an international news agency was prematurely terminated, in evident retaliation for a series of reports he had filed on the humanitarian consequences of the war.

Access to the north of the country has been severely curtailed for years and remains so over three-and-a-half months since the war ended, so that the stories that ordinary people have to tell about the last days of the war remain unknown to the world.

We are especially worried at the refusal of the Sri Lankan authorities to allow independent media access to the camps set up in the north of the country for people displaced in the last phases of the war. We remind the Sri Lankan Government that the public in Sri Lanka and elsewhere has the right to be informed, through independent reporting, of the humanitarian consequences of its military operations and the prospects of an estimated 280,000 internally displaced people for resettlement and rehabilitation.

We note with alarm that three journalists from the Sinhala-language weekly Irida Lanka have been detained by the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Sri Lankan police and that official spokespersons are putting out charges of their involvement in an assassination plot.

We urge the Government of Sri Lanka to repeal its Prevention of Terrorism Act, which was introduced, ostensibly as a temporary measure, in 1973. Till necessary legislative changes are made, we demand that all cases registered under the law, which have had a chilling effect on the right to free speech, be kept in abeyance.

We underline our solidarity with the five main bodies of journalists in Sri Lanka: the Free Media Movement (FMM), the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association (SLWJA), the Federation of Media Employees’ Trade Unions (FMETU), the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF) and the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA). These organisations form a coalition that should be strengthened and allowed to operate in an environment free from fear, in the wider cause of press freedom and the public right to know.

Journalism is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Developments in technology, politics and society are increasingly putting the media industries and the profession of journalism at the centre of [...]]]> Admission to masters degree programme.
Introduction

Journalism is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Developments in technology, politics and society are increasingly putting the media industries and the profession of journalism at the centre of people’s attempt to make sense of what is happening in the world around them. The Erasmus Mundus Masters degree explores the practice and performance of journalism and the media in the context of a new environment brought about by globalization, modernization, commercialisation and professional developments. The scheme offers a unique educational experience. You will study in three European countries. You will be able to specialize in one of three distinct areas of journalism: war and conflict, business and finance and citizenship. You will be part of a group of 40 students selected from a pool of candidates from around the world. You will be part of a network of classmates that draws on a variety of experience and knowledge and meet the global ambitions of the degree. The Erasmus Mundus program in Journalism and Media seeks to produce alumni who will shape the future of global journalism.

The degree scheme brings together five leading European institutions in the journalism and media education, combining the best academic research and teaching from the different national educational cultures. The program aims to prepare students for the challenge of working in the new global information society. Globalization is penetrating cultural and social borders around the world and simultaneously reinvigorating smaller regions and feelings of local identity. Political and social power is taking on new dimensions. Cultural awareness and misunderstanding are growing. Journalism is at the centre of these changes.

• Politically, states in Europe are coming together and falling apart at the same time. Journalists need new tools to understand and to interpret the processes of integration and disintegration.
• Economically, a global world market is creating growth and havoc at the same time. Journalists need tools to be able to describe it in clear language.
• Socially, people are getting connected in new ways through modern technologies. Journalism is the crucial field in a network society.
• Culturally, there is increasing onus on the media and journalism to explain differences and similarities between peoples and societies.

The focus of the Erasmus Mundus Masters in Journalism and Media is to give participants the intellectual tools for a new and better understanding of reporting the global challenge.

technorati tags:media, magazine, rural, india, news