IBC's sister-media Gagana used to threaten Tamil villagers in Trinco on 18 May Remembrance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2020, 16:23 GMT]
A Sinhala-language news website, Gagana, owned by IBC Tamil Ltd., is being used in a campaign of reporting to prompt the intelligence wing of the occupying SL military to hunt down Tamil grassroots activists at Ki'li-veddi in Moothoor division of the Trincomalee district. A news item published in gaganga.lk with screenshots of social media messages supposedly shared in the accounts of three Tamils on the occasion of 18 May Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance has put the lives of three persons, particularly one of them, in great danger, rights activists in Trincomalee said. The Sinhala ‘news’ accused the Tamil youth sharing the posts as promoters of “terrorism” through social media. It went further claiming that the Tamil youth were making money from “pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora.”

The news item was published after a recent dispute between hardline Sinhala colonists from Dehiwaththa village of Seruvila division situated along the south-western border of Moothoor division and the Tamil youth.

Around twelve Sinhala colonists from Dehiwaththa were trying to seize the lands that belong to Abiramy Amman temple located between Meankaamam in Moothoor and Dehiwaththa in Seruvila. The dispute ended in a clash and a police case on 05 May.

After the SL Police managed to calm down those involved in the conflict, hardline Sinhala colonists have found a new way to take the upper hand through engaging the military intelligence to target the Tamil youth who were active in defending the land rights.

While thousands of Tamils were sharing posts related to 18 May Remembrance, why did the gagana.lk report target three Tamils from a particular village and that too without fact-checking on the disputes prevailing on the ground, ask rights activists in Moothoor East.

It was shocking to see such a sinister news item appearing in a media owned by Tamils, journalists in Colombo said. Tamil or non-Tamil, most of the media operated by actors with corporate interests behave the same way, they commented.

Gagana.lk is registered in the name of IBC Tamil Ltd in the domain name registry in Colombo.

IBC Tamil is owned and run by London Tamil Media Ltd., registered in the United Kingdom.

Amsterdam-based Baskaran Kandiah alias Karan is the chairman of IBC Tamil.

IBC Tamil is mainly dependent on advertisements from the Tamil diaspora business actors to sustain its operations including the media on the ground in the island such as gagana.lk, informed sources in Colombo said.