Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

<strong>Attacks</strong> on the Press in 2010outlets have gone beyond partisanship to become media arms of politicaloperations. At the same time, the government and its supporters havecome to equate all criticism with political opposition.In Sri Lanka, three decades of brutal internal warring with Tamilseparatists ended in 2009, only to be followed by a political battle royalebetween Rajapaksa, the president who led the country to victory, andSarath Fonseka, the general who won the war on the battlefield. In theJanuary 2010 presidential elections, with the fighting well over, nearly allSri Lankan journalists and their media outlets lined up behind one candidateor the other. Journalists fought their candidate’s political battles andsometimes each other, denouncing colleagues by name.Thailand’s exiled former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, used satellitetelevision and the Internet to combat the government’s domination ofbroadcast media, present his movement’s political agenda, and stir massivepolitical unrest. Programming, sometimes incendiary, was aired live fromThe fallout for the press was significant inSri Lanka and Thailand.a stage erected in the center of Bangkok by protesters with the ThaksinalignedUnited Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, or UDD, ananti-government protest group. Ninety-one people were killed, includingtwo foreign journalists, and 1,800 were injured in the violence betweengovernment troops and armed protesters in April and May.The fallout for the press was significant in both countries. Individualjournalists were targeted with violence and imprisonment, which led towider self-censorship. The Thai government disingenuously used the coverof emergency rule and media “reform” to close thousands of politicallyoriented websites. Sri Lanka began imposing a system to restrict electioncoverage and hold tight rein on media licensing. In both countries, thework of press freedom defenders was complicated as some media blurredthe lines between journalism and political operations.The presence of partisan media is hardly unique in the region. In India,a multiplicity of views has enabled partisan media to thrive, although individualreporters have been attacked. Bangladeshi journalists have also beenassaulted on a partisan basis, but violence has ebbed in recent years as thesplit between the two ruling families has simmered. Pakistan’s historicallypartisan print media have been bolstered by the expansion of broadcastmedia, which have added to the range of views.124