State media's biased role

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 December 1999, 06:04 GMT]
Several Presidential candidates complained to the Commissioner of Elections last week that the People's Alliance (PA) has been misusing the government controlled media during the Presidential elections.

They claimed that even though several complaints had already been filed, no action had been taken in respect to this.

The government also complained about the misuse of the media. They complained that the privately owned media had been giving greater coverage to the opposition candidates. For this reason, the Ministry of Information announced that privately owned electronic media should not broadcast election related matters.

The Secretary to the Ministry demanded an explanation from a broadcaster who had breached this ruling by transmitting an opposing candidate's election policy. The broadcaster refused to answer the question on the grounds that only the Commissioner of Elections had the right to ask the question.

Following this, the Minister for Information and spokesman for the Ministry, Mr. Mangala Samaraweera, announced that the ruling party had decided to utilize the privately owned media for their own election related publicity.

On the assumption that while independent media could be biased, the state media should be impartial, TamilNet attempted to investigate the situation, but discovered that the opposite was the case.

To illustrate this, the government owned Thinakaran from last Sunday was subjected to close scrutiny and the details of this analysis follows.

On two pages, Page 1 and Page 7, of this twenty four page newspaper, 16 news items were published. Of these, nine were pro-government. In particular, of the seven stories on the front page, five were biased towards the government's election campaign, clearly indicating the paper's stand. (Click on the image for larger picture)

The headline news stated "President seeks people's support for setting up a Constitutional Assembly, if two-thirds majority is not won."

The other front page articles that took a pro-Government line are:

8 columns at the top of the page detailed coverage given to the President's interview,

at the lower section of the page a news story relating to the President's assertion that she will implement Interim Council administration to the North in January (6 columns),

4 column coverage of "UNP MPs support the President,"

another 4 column news item "PA assured victory by 1 million votes."

The two other news stories that appeared in the front page, headlined "Plane crash averted," and the 4-column story "More than 200 Tigers killed in Vettrilaikerni battle" were not supportive of the Opposition.

Page 7 contained nine additional stories of which 4 were supportive of the Government.

"500,000 votes from Muslims are certain for the President"

"Last document signed by Thondaman," a letter that appealed for support to Chandrika

"Can Ranil go against his pact with the Tigers," - Ratwatte questions "Ranil did not give an MP for the east on the National List but has come now with speciously pleasing words"- former minister Mustafa

The other five stories are not supportive of the Opposition: One Vanni story, a story about the last rites of a PLOTE cadre, thoughts about the Holy Ramadan, a news story about a plane crash, and coverage of a Pradeshiya Sabha member joining the Muslim Congress which supports the PA appeared in this page. (Click on the image for larger picture)

Besides the pages that cover Art, Culture, Cinema, Sports, Commerce and Reviews of Communication media, almost all articles published in other pages promote the Government Party or its support groups. Seven such articles can be identified in the issue.

75 percent of Page 3 is devoted to the discussion on Television by the President. Page 4 is allotted for the Editors Opinion. Even these opinions favored the President.

An article that appears on the same page about Ranil Wickremasinghe is written by a regular columnist. A cartoon that makes mockery of the Opposition leader appears in the same page.

Page 5 contains an interview with Varatharaja Perumal and Page 6 covers an interview with a Trade Union leader. Both have expressed support for the President.

Page 9 is devoted to the Election Manifesto of the People's Alliance which is continued on Page 14 and 15. Page 17 contains the Election Advertisment of President Chandrika Kumaratunge.

Minister Nimal Sripala de Silva's interview appears on Page 10, the lower section of the same page contains an article that criticizes Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The lower section of Page 12 has an article that is critical of the support given by the Upcountry People's Front to the United National Party (UNP). Thondaman's life history and Book reviews appear on Page 16.

In summary, the Thinakaran issue analysed contains an overwhelming number of articles that support the PA Government. The points of view of the Opposition parties are almost totally ignored. In issues related to Politics and Governance, only the information that is supportive of the ruling party is published.

This, say Political analysts, clearly shows that during the time of elections, the Government Press has wavered from its duty to maintain neutrality.

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