The Sri Lanka Press Institution (SLPI) and the Newspaper Publishers Association are offering a reward of Rs. 5 million (Approximately US$ 50,000) for information on the assault on the journalist, Namal Perera. Namal Perera who works for the SLPI and Mahindra Ratnaweera, a political officer with the British High Commission, were severely assaulted on Monday, 30th June and the car in which they were traveling smashed by a group of unidentified men in broad daylight.
The initiative taken by the SLPI to offer this reward demonstrates the determination of the media organisations to uncover the sources behind the many attacks on journalists and other media persons which have increased recently. The case of Mr. Keith Noyahr, the defense correspondent of the Nation newspaper, who was abducted and tortured, is another well known example of these attacks. So far no one has been arrested, investigated or prosecuted for such attacks. This initiative by the SLPI also demonstrates the extreme frustration of the media organisations about the unwillingness and incapacity of the countrys police authorities to investigate such assaults with any degree of success.
Usually in any country it is the government that offers rewards to persons who are able to give information on crimes that the state authorities are finding hard to resolve. The state, which has the obligation to investigate crimes, sometimes finds it difficult to gather information due to various reasons and in such circumstances the state offers rewards to the public for any information that might lead to the identification of the perpetrators of such crimes. There have been instances in the past when Sri Lankan authorities have offered such rewards relating to crimes that they were determined to resolve.
However, despite the recent increase in crime and the growing number of unresolved crimes, the government of Sri Lanka and the police authorities have failed to resort to this mode of calling for information. They do not appear to want to give publicity to unresolved crimes so that informants might have some incentive to come forward and to reveal the identity of the perpetrators. It may be interesting to interview the Inspector General of Police and any other high ranking police officers as to why they are not resorting to this well tried method of looking for information relating to crimes which has been tested the world over.
Perhaps the more worrying question is as to whether the government really wants information about such crimes as the attacks on journalists. A spokesman for the International Federation of Journalists is quoted by the BBC Sandaseshaya, as saying the forces within the government are behind many of the recent attacks. If this is not true it is the duty of the state authorities to show who the real culprits are by taking steps to effectively investigate such incidents. If the state does not demonstrate, by very visible actions, that they are genuinely interested in investigating these crimes, then quite simply the governments credibility will be lost. In fact, generally, there is no trust that crimes of this nature will be effectively investigated at all.
This brings us to the question of responsibility for the continuing human rights violations. While the critics of the government have challenged the political will of the state to deal with such matters, the spokesman for the government has refuted this and has sought to make it appear that it is due to the lack of technical assistance from the international community that the Sri Lankan government is unable to resolve crimes. Such a claim by the government spokesman will sound hollow until the will to thoroughly investigate crimes is demonstrated by resolute actions of the state authorities.
At least for names sake, there is a Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights. This appears quite fitting as the human rights situation in the country has reached a disaster level, particularly in terms of media freedoms. This ministry has not shown any will to condemn any of the attacks on the media and do all it can to activate the government machinery to investigate such crimes. Instead the spokesman for this ministry makes it appear that it is the media that may well be a threat to the defense of the country. Meanwhile, from the highest levels of the government there is a claim that the complaints about the attacks on the media are simply a ploy to discredit the country. If this be so then the government could easily disprove it by making its investigative machinery effectively probe crimes and thus demolish such ploys. The hypocritical speeches about the political will to eradicate human rights violations is seriously exposed in the face of the lack of any visible signs by the government to take the usual steps that are taken anywhere in the world to get information about crime.
