Lanka-e-News, 2007 Oct 29

A statement made by the President at the last government parliamentary group meeting on Lanka-e-News was published in the political columns of almost all the weekend newspapers.

The President said, "Tamilnet said that eight aircrafts were destroyed. But Lanka-e-News went ahead to say that 17 were destroyed."

One in the group said that Lanka-e-News is Bennet Cooray's while another corrected it saying that it is not Benet Cooray but Benet Rupasinghe who is linked to UNP.

We think we should respond to this statement by the President who is also the Commander-in-Chief of three armed forces since it affects the media freedom in general, Lanka-e-News and veteran journalist Benet Rupasinghe personally.

Killer groups later targeted those who were labeled as Tigers in the recent past.

We did not deviate from the globally acclaimed basic principles of conflict reporting in our history and we did not report to satisfy one party. We always bowed the people's right to know the truth.

For instance, when various media were telling that Sencholai which was air raided by Air Force was an orphanage, we directly said that it was a transit camp of the suicide cadres. We cited a number of previous media reports to prove our opinion. We reported truth to the readers while some alternative thinkers hated us.

Similarly, we reported the true information we received on Anuradhapura attack. We thoroughly deny that we were based on Tamilnet although the government seems to do so. The government first said three aircrafts were destroyed and when Tamilnet reported eight were destroyed the government also resorted to it.

The government first said that 20 LTTE cadres were killed and when Tamilnet said 21 were killed, government changed the number.

Then Tamilnet was good and correct. Later Tamilnet reported that a village in Thissamaharamaya was attacked. One radio station swallowed this dead rope and announced it, to be axed the license later by the government. Now the same Tamilnet is bad and incorrect.

Lanka-e-News, which has its own independent network of news sources, needs not to be compared with other media.

Everybody in armed forces knows that the number of damaged aircrafts is more than that is announced by the government. It is only hidden to public. It is humorous to say that reporting a known fact to the armed forces demoralizes security forces. On the other hand, if the media can boost or drop morale, the media could have made the armed forces to win the battle through what media did during the past twenty-five years. Nevertheless, if the forces depend on media to keep up its morale it should not be an Army.

Lanka-e-News accepts the existence of security forces as principle. The Sinhala website of the Media Centre for National Security uses the font we designed disregarding our copyrights. We are happy that they use our font to write correctly. Meanwhile, the Information Department website uses another font and it is unreadable. We several times said to the higher officials of the department to use our font and to run a good website.

What we have to say on Sirikotha is that Lanka-e-News is not a news service that depends on the funds of any political party or NGO. We are never ready to put our website that is run with the help of a large number of benevolent media persons at the service to Madamulana or Cambridge Terrace.

This war is waged not from the monies of any of afore said. It is financed from the tax money of the domestic and expatriate workers. They have the right to know the truth and we are at their service.

We have to say this too since the name of our journalist Benet Rupasinghe was also mentioned. He is one of those few who grew in the shade of the great D. B. Dhanapala and he is still engaged in journalism. He joined us after 30 years service in 'Aththa' newspaper and remains with us for two years while various media organizations attempted to take him for higher salaries. We must say that he is not a person to be dishonored by linking him to Sirikotha.

Editor-in-Chief,
Lanka-e-News
www.lankaenews.com