The charge of Tamilnet against those who focus on the truth

(March 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) We are publishing here the lead feature of Tamnilnet today. It speaks for itself. It is very widely known that Tamilnet is a factory of media untruths determined to serve the interests of the LTTE.

On many occasions it has been exposed as dwelling on the untruth and the mischievous. Tamilnet generously supported by the Californian millionaire medicos churns out daily reams of untruths and have recently begun to feel the strain of being exposed as a media fraud.

We know for real that none of its so-called representatives or newshounds are in Sri Lanka let alone Wanni and all that appears in Tamilnet is whatever determined in the room from which Tamilnet operates with inputs from pro-Tiger people. Tamilnet has to protect the Tiger industry that has been developed outside Sri Lanka; it has no love for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The LTTE has to be kept active and operative and the fuel for this operation are the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Cruelty of disinformation

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 March 2009, 14:29 GMT] TamilNet Sunday published news and photographs on the plight of pregnant mothers, newborn babies and babies in the wombs affected by the inhuman shelling and bombing by the Colombo government on the safe zone declared for civilians. This information on hard truth has stirred Colombo's disinformation agencies to discredit TamilNet by bringing in trivial matters such as the camera time-settings of the photographs taken in the makeshift-hospital.

In addition to what our correspondents personally observe and document, they also collect documentary material from sources such as hospital staff and the families of victims themselves in support of the verified news they file.

They are not responsible either for the faultiness in the photographic equipments of others or for the carelessness of the non-journalists who have not realized the significance of keeping up to date the time setting in their cameras when they take photographs under emergency situations.

Our correspondents vouchsafe the credibility of the news and the visual content they file either as personally seen or documented by them or as verified and double-checked by them of its credibility to their entire satisfaction.

The anti-media elements of Colombo and certain disinformation sites, threatened by the strength of information flowing through TamilNet, think that they can discredit it by bringing in trivial matters such as the timestamp of the camera used in the photographs that appear in TamilNet, rather than investigating the tragedies reported and finding remedies for them.

What they don't understand is that TamilNet could have very well edited the meta-data of the photographs before publishing them, but it hasn't done so, because TamilNet doesn't believe in cheap twisting of data.

Some of the photographs that appeared in TamilNet earlier had even future-dated timestamps in meta-data. But, they have not attracted the attention of these disinformation 'experts', who are very well known for doctoring entire photographs.

TamilNet usually prefers to ignore disinformation campaign mooted against it by vicious elements bereft of credibility. However, in recent times, we notice even elements holding responsible titles in government have intensified their attacks on TamilNet in local and international forums, aiming ultimately for the cruel belittling of the sufferings of the innocent people at the hands of their forces.

When the media giants of the world either have no guts or are unwilling to personally cover what is actually taking place in the safe zone of Vanni, the TamilNet is the only news agency that has ventured into the risk of operating independently to cover the conflict, especially the plight of the civilians, in its very locale.

Our sources and correspondents face extremely high risk of life, live amidst torrents of shelling and bombing and operate in an environment lacking all media facilities, but they have not lost their journalistic integrity. They work impelled only by the spirit of right information reaching the outside world. About what they really feel sad and complain is only pathetic lack of media and communication facilities that prevent them from giving their best of service to the world of information.

-Sri Lanka Guardian