The Secretary, IATAJ.
As a participant to the conference I wish
to say a few words.
Firstly let me congratulate you and the organisation. On all accounts it
was a grand success and I hope you would have achieved what you set out as
your goal. On arrival to the venue I was impressed by the very large number of
participants. In fact later on I found that the hall was completely full and
few had to stand. This confirmed my belief that the Tamils are very much
interested in the plight of journalists and their welfare. I do remember in my
young age in
The conference kicked off very smartly, with Ivan providing the intro.
The speakers in the morning secession did detail how they underwent harassment
hardship and in many cases human rights violations. No doubt the Tamils are
very very angry at the government. After all we do revere new spars as a medium
of Goddess Saraswathi and any harm to it or any one associated with it is akin
to desecration of Tamilian values.
A strong case for Press freedom was made by the Non Tamil delegates,
Bandara in particular, who has first hand experience in the Governments strong
hand policy in stifling the free expression by media and slaying the truth.
The evening session was livened up by Baghvan Singh and Murari , who
recounted their
Period of reporting the situation in
In all the event was the first of its kind to bring the problems faced
by journalists in
sivasamy
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IN
SEARCH OF THE TRUTH?
The
International Association of Tamil Journalists (IATAJ) held its third Annual
Conference (2008) at the
The
IATAJ was formed in
It
was appropriate therefore that the Conference title was 'Media and
The
Conference lasted all day and was heavily attended by journalists and concerned
Tamils plus a sprinkling of others. The sessions were ably and
entertainingly handled by the acting Chair Mr Ivan Pedropillai.
The
morning saw historical and contemporary reports on the Tamil media and
highlighted how the intimidation and sometimes fatal wounding of
journalists grew as political negotiations faltered in the 1980's and violent
conflict took hold. Inevitably Tamil journalists found it increasingly
difficult to report on events as they were denied access or were threatened if
they reported 'negatively' Government actions.
The
session by the BBC Sinhalese Journalist, Mr Chandana Bandara was entertaining and explained that both Tamil and
Sinhalese were largely kept in the dark and were only fed the 'truth' as
determined by the Authorities. There was a lively debate between some
of the audience, who felt the Tamils get the rawest deal, and Mr Bandara who believed it was almost impossible to verify the
truth in a war situation.
Rachael
Cohen of the International Federation of Journalists explained that they were
concerned with the lack of Press Freedom within
Personally
i think the meeting highlighted the
problem journalists have (whatever their nationality) in verifying what is
happening 'on the ground' in
Ironically
in the week before the conference the Evening Standard attacked the
Tamil Forum (with usual accusations of being a 'Tiger front') in an effort
to smear London Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone but in doing so smeared the
Tamil cause too. The story was initiated by the Sri Lankan High Commission. As
I have stated in a previous article I contend this happens so
often because there is no visible alternative source for the 'world'
(and the west in particular) to approach.
A
Media Operation in the U.K. (it could go international or have replica
groups elsewhere) would take information 'leaked' out of Sri Lanka
(including perhaps reports from members of the IATAJ?), filter it
for western consumption and then work to ensure the information is laid
before the media and the public at large.
For
the Tamils to meet their national aspirations they must first win over the
'hearts and minds of the West' and in order to do that they must argue the case
for self-determination and counter the relentless GOSL propaganda that is
presently fed to an ignorant media. Perhaps a future conference can
concentrate on what can be done to right the wrongs of the past.
Graham Williamson
Graham Williamson is an Executive Member of the newly
formed National Liberal Party based in the