aluthgama report final

Chapter VI
Media Coverage of Aluthgama Riots
The line that separates conventional mainstream media from social media is becoming
increasingly blurred. Most newspapers and television broadcast services carry 24/7 news
coverage via social media. Professional journalists operate their blogs and twitter accounts
independently of the media establishment to which they are attached. These nuances of
present media were in full display during the riots in Aluthgama and Beruwala.
Conventional Media 105
Today, Newspapers and television news providers operate twitter accounts through which
they provide 24/7 news updates. However, as the events in Aluthgama and Beruwala
unfolded, the media giants had very little to say. Ada Derana updated the public around 8.30
pm that police curfew had been enforced in Beruwala areas in addition to Aluthgama area. 106
This was followed by an update at 6.41 am next morning which communicated a message
from the President stating that anybody taking the law into their own hands will be
punished. 107 Daily Mirror too provided a similar coverage on Twitter. Lankadeepa on the
other hand seemed to disregard the events. 108
Certain key individual journalists representing international and local media were more
comprehensive in providing specific details of the events to the public through Twitter.
BBC’s Charles Haviland, Daily FT’s Dharisha Bastians and Al Jazeera’s Dinouk Colombage
provided consistent updates of the carnage that was taking place during the curfew hours of
15 th night in Aluthgama. “#srilanka Minister Rauff Hakeem in tears at Dharga Town mosque:
says #muslim women fled to jungles after rape threats. #Aluthgama #SriLanka”, tweeted
Charles Haviland. He further tweets, “Local Sinhalese Buddhist people #aluthgama say
Buddhist hardliners had come from outside & there was violence on both sides. #srilanka
#lka”. Uploading photos of the riots and the destruction as it happened, these journalists filled
a lacuna that was created by other mainstream news providers to best utilize new technology
to provide the public with relevant updates.
When the print versions of newspapers rolled out 16 th morning, they did little to shed light on
the complexities of what unfolded in Aluthgama. 109 Most newspapers reported the same
105 This section offers an analysis of the mainstream English and Sinhala media with some references to
alternative Sinhala media such as the Ravaya newspaper. It does not cover any Tamil sources.
106 Screenshots of some of the twitter feed can be found at:
https://app.box.com/s/frnz8fg4khjj6zeq04iq/1/2092435554.
107 Ibid.
108 Ibid.
109 Screenshots of some online versions of daily newspapers on 16 June 2014 can be found at:
https://app.box.com/s/frnz8fg4khjj6zeq04iq.
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