The channels of distortion

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake

(August 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) For a few days last week the historic relationship or Transatlantic Alliance between the USA and UK came under heavy stress with the convicted, but not necessarily guilty, Lockerbie bomber being released from life imprisonment in a Scottish jail, on compassionate grounds, to spend the last few months of his life with his family in Libya.

Influential sections of public opinion in the USA and UK seemed aghast at what was clearly an act of compassion on the part of the Scottish Minister of Justice in releasing the alleged killer, after due process, and in keeping with Scottish law, which provides for such acts of compassion and mercy. The media on both sides of the Atlantic waded deep into the story, which became so ugly with both President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, trying to teach the Libyan people how they should treat one of their own citizens who had been freed from imprisonment which they thought was wrong. These leaders of western democracies had the gumption to tell the Libyan leader and people that there should be no exultation or big celebration on the man’s return home. How many troops come home to a hero’s welcome, at the USA alone, having killed or maimed so many civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan or the tribal mountains in between?

The protestors in these countries that make a great noise about their defence of Christian values, and even President Obama who never fails to ask God to Save America after every important speech, had no thoughts of the spirit of all encompassing love, mercy and forgiveness that is at the core of Christian teaching, which appears to be what the Scottish law that deals with compassion and mercy for a prisoners nearing death is based upon. The Scottish Minister for Justice deserves all credit for the manner in which he accepted full responsibility for what he had done, and also his readiness to face any consequences. His courage was unlike the mainly US families of the Lockerbie victims who accepted compensation in cash from Libya for the victims of the bombing, and still wanted the alleged killer to die in prison.

But all his virtues became murky with suspicions that the British may have thought of better trade relations with Libya, in giving the nod to the Scottish spirit of mercy and compassion, and Gordon Brown certainly did not cut a good figure when he was denying suspicions that the release of the man may have been linked British interests in better trade relations with Libya. It is possibly a secret that will never be out. It is not yet easy for the Brits to live down their image as a nation of shopkeepers, and Gordon Brown is the biggest shoppee today.

The media that was making a big fuss over the matter soon channeled their intetrest to other convenient directions such as the elections in Afghanistan, and, thankfully for them, the distraction of the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, the last of the Kennedy brothers and the only one to die due to natural causes.

But sandwiched between these two stories that kept the western media lip smacking with delight and distraction, was one about Sri Lanka, that sought to draw the attention of the world to – it won’t be hard to guess – War Crimes in Sri Lanka. It was Channel 4 in the UK that broke the video footage showing naked and bound "Tamil" civilians, being shot dead at close range allegedly by Sri Lanka troops. It was edited with official footage of the final stages of military operations in the north earlier this year, to show some authenticity. Channel 4 ran the unverified video on August 25. Not to be left out of the loop The Times, London carried it the next day headlined – "Naked, bound and shot: fate of "Tamil Tigers rebel". Note the quotation marks to show the victims may not be killers of the LTTE.

The attempt at castigating Sri Lanka through an anonymous video, which had no degree of authenticity whatever, did not stop there. It was readily picked up by the BBC, which showed the alleged killings on TV, with warnings to viewers about the shocking nature of the pictures.

Channel 4, The Times and BBC stake claim to be high priests of media freedom, ethics and probity in news today. But none of them bothered to verify the accuracy of the footage they used for their own sinister purposes. It was the same type of "exposure" of Sri Lankan war crimes that was shown to the world in the final days of the battle to defeat the LTTE by the BBC, when it aired alleged footage of a hospital bombed in the North, (there were several unsubstantiated items of such bombings) claiming that 300 civilians had been killed in one day in that incident. The footage came from a hitherto unknown Canadian based "Mercy" source, and the BBC reporter in Colombo gladly added to the sensationalism by stating that it made the particular day the "bloodiest day in the Sri Lankan war against the LTTE". There were no doubts at BBC about the veracity of the video footage, although admittedly it could not be verified.

For Channel 4 that broke the footage, The Times that hooked on to it and the BBC that repeated the Channel 4 canard it was gospel truth, from the latest evangelists of LTTE terrorism, the Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka. Much is being made of this nondescript group, which is described as journalists living in self-exile outside Sri Lanka, and working hard to defend media freedom and democracy here. As for living in self-exile, it must be tantalizing to many a scribbler who seeks the creature comforts of foreign climes, well provided by foreign groups that have an interest in harming the Sri Lankan image and national economy, in an effort to restore the influence of foreign forces unhappy about the defeat of "the invincible" LTTE terror, to keep Sri Lanka bleeding and away from development and progress.

Many of them are the beneficiaries of so-called ubiquitous white van abductions, who are almost driven to the doorsteps of western embassies, waiting with visa applications forms at the ready to give them refugee status, to be soon converted to permanent residency or citizenship. There are some among these campaigners for democracy in Sri Lanka who have swindled millions of money that was meant to promote media freedom in Sri Lanka, (as if that needed so many foreign channeled millions, including safe houses, questionable seminars and un-audited accounts), who are now enjoying their stay abroad, and doing justice by their patrons by producing the type of video footage, that takes more than six months to smuggle out of Sri Lanka, when video cameras are taken away without any problem by the thousands of visitors who come to Sri Lanka every week.

The channels of distortion, from the western media, those who shed crocodile tears for the IDPs in Sri Lanka, those thumping drums about human rights violations here, journalists for democracy in self-exile, and many other sinister movers will be more active in the weeks to come. There are so many channels willing to lend themselves to the distortion of truth, when the buckshee flows freely from those with vested interests in destabilizing a developing country, or turning their "self-exile" into easy profit in cash, kind and a new national identity.

-Sri Lanka Guardian