Deriding the war heroes for a living - the ugly face of "Defence
Analysts" in Sri Lanka
There has been much controversy among the media and
political circles over the stance taken by the Ministry of Defence on
the media freedom in this country. Some have even called it a
government's war on media; some call it an anti democratic stance taken
by the government. Whatever it is, the Ministry stands affirm on its
stance over the irresponsible defence reportage and will assure to take
all necessary measures to stop this journalistic treachery against the
country. Though, the defence.lk has many a times explained the grounds
of its stance, the Ministry finds that certain sections of media and
political interlopers continue to mislead the public over the issue.
Therefore, the Ministry being the institution responsible for national
security informs all the media personnel and whoever other interested
parties, the concerns it has over the behaviour of media in the context
defence.
First of all, the Ministry clarifies that it has no
concerns over media work other than those related to the national
security and solidarity. No political battles, scandals, controversies,
etc unrelated to the defence reportage does not come under the
Ministry's purview. The following are the Ministry's concerns that all
the responsible media personnel are expected to comprehend.
1. Sri Lanka is at a war. The citizens of this
country are facing a serious threat from one of the most atrocious
terrorists groups in the world and therefore they have the right to
defend themselves like citizens of any other country in the world. The
armed forces members of this country are engaged in the noble mission
of liberating the country from the clutches of terrorism. Media
personnel may have their individual reservations of the war against
terror, but success of any war effort needs public support. Thus,
whoever attempts to reduce the public support to the military by
making false allegations and directing baseless criticism at armed
forces personnel is supporting the terrorist organization that
continuously murder citizens of Sri Lanka. The Ministry will continue
to expose these traitors and their sinister motives and does not
consider such exposure as a threat to media freedom. Those who commit
such treachery should identify themselves with the LTTE rather than
showing themselves as crusaders of Media Freedom.
2. There are 4 main issues that the Ministry
concerns most about in defence reportage i.e. criticising military
operations, promotion schemes, procurement and using unethical
measures to obtain defence information.
i. Criticism over military
operations-
Military operations are planned and conducted by the
officers with 30-40 years of service. These officers are battle hardened
and also equipped with the sound knowledge in warfare obtained by
experience and professional education. The Ministry is in the view, that
it is no one other than the military officers who are qualified to plan,
conduct, and analyse military operations. Also, the Ministry does not
consider those who call themselves "defence analysts" in the media
profession in this country possess any military education or military
experience to make any serious defence analysis. Therefore, those
defence reporters should take the maximum effort to do their work under
the pure reporting rules than misleading the public with inane comments
that they are not qualified to make. The Ministry welcomed constructive
criticism and new ideas, but does not wish to entertain mere doomsayers
who always try to undermine the soldier's commitment.
Ministry views baseless criticisms over military
operations as attempts to create semblance that the military is run by a
set of incompetent or mediocre officers. If allowed to do so for a long
time, such work will reduce the public confidence over the armed forces
and ultimately lead to the loss of public support. On the other hand, the
soldiers themselves are embarrassed and the country may loose the
opportunity to get the best out of them. Hence, the Ministry will
continue to counter such foul defence reportage that helps the
terrorist, whether the so called "Media Rights Groups", call it a
"hateful campaign" or not.
ii. Criticism over promotion
schemes
The human resource of an organization is considered to
be the most vital resource even in non-military organizations. This is
an extremely important success factor in the military, as those commanders
who lead the battle have to take their men to the field with the
knowledge that they may even lose their lives. Thus, the officers'
capability in leading the battle goes far beyond the mere seniority and
media popularity. Thus, the Ministry wants the media to understand the
simple logic that the commander must have the freedom to choose the best
team for his mission to make it a successful one. There are laid down
procedures in making promotion decisions for senior officers in armed
forces and there are other grievance procedures available for all the
members of the armed forces to redress their grievances. Thus, there is
hardly any reason for military person to take their problems to media
and bring disgrace upon the organization that looked after them for many
long years.
On the other hand, such criticism on internal
promotions does the same damage to the armed forces as mentioned above
by embarrassing those officers who run the actual battle. They are being
introduced to the public as those who are not qualified to hold their
appointments and therefore they may not be able to carryout their duties
in a happy environment. Also, public may look at the military as an
organization run by incompetent people.
iii. Criticism over military
procurement
It has been observed that many self-assumed defence
analysts in this country are speculating frauds in each and every
military procurement that the Ministry makes. If they are correct the
military is the most corrupted organization in this country run by the
most corrupted people. Thus, armed forces have no war heroes other than
thieves who steal public money, according to these bogus defence
analysts. The Ministry has serious concerns over this issue not because
of the question of media's right to expose the frauds, but of the biased
reporting on military procurements.
For instance, none of these "defence analysts" informs
the public over the requirements of the armed forces and the urgency of
meeting them when commenting on military procurement. Generally, they
refer to the numbers and speculate some sort of a fraud without any base
as to show the public that the funds are stolen and wasted. Ministry
considers this type of reporting is highly damaging to an organization
which plays a vital role for the benefit of the public and that requires
public support more than anything else to play its role effectively.
Hence, the Ministry urges those reporters to reveal the full story
without concealing facts to the public when commenting on the defence
procurement. The facts such as, the procurements were made on the
requirements submitted by the tactical commanders, and on the
recommendations made by expert technical evaluation boards should not be
concealed from the public. It is a basic professional standard in
journalism to verify facts from all the relevant parties particularly
when publishing information damaging to the public image of an
institution or even of an individual.
iv. Using unethical measures
to obtain information
The final but the most serious concern the Ministry
has on the defence reportage is the unethical measures that have been
used to obtain information by some of these so called "defence
analysts". It has been observed that some disgruntle personnel have been
lured by these media people to give away even some of the most sensitive
information to the national security. Some "analysts" even go on
inducing heroism to their informants in armed forces as to show them as
some sort of a rebels or freedom fighters fighting a secret battle
against their "incompetent and corrupted" authorities.
On this issue the Ministry requests both the public as
well as all media professional to understand the difference between a
civilian organization and a military organization. In military there is
no room for trade unionists, dissidents, rebels, freedom fighters and
other similar odd personalities often found in civilian organizations.
This is because of very good grounds, for a soldier is a defender of the
nation but not his own personal interests. To defend the nation, the
soldiers must possesses absolute and uncompromising loyalty towards the
nation and also be partial to the government irrespective of the person
who runs it. Therefore, the Ministry requests all discernible media
professionals to understand that military is a vital national asset. A
large amount of public money is being spent on the training, education,
salaries, and other benefits on military personnel not because the
public want them to be informants to the media agencies but to stay
loyal to the nation, to fight for her and to safeguard the good order
and the military discipline. Thus, military if lost discipline is nothing
but a group of dependents that eat out public money without giving
anything back to the country.
Any journalist that lures a soldier to give away
information he is not authorised to give is instigating him or her to
breach the military discipline. Likewise, if such journalists lure the
soldier by exploiting his/her personal grievances, weaknesses, ego, and
personal disputes or even by bribery; the journalist is inflicting an
irreparable damage to one of the most valuable national asset. Thus,
such journalists or "defence analysts" are no heroes but the enemies of
the state that aims at destroying the most valuable public asset of a
country at a war. The Ministry is in the view that if it is not the
ignorance that causes any such journalist to engage in such
irresponsible behaviour there should be no other reason than they are
being hired by the terrorists, for they are doing a job of the enemy.
Above are the concerns that the Ministry has on the
media work in the context of national defence. The Ministry expects all
the responsible media professionals to comprehend that soldiers are in a
noble mission; i.e: to rid the country from the scourge of terrorism.
Thus, the Ministry does not find any other word better
than a "Traitor" to call whoever attempts to show the soldiers as
thieves or fools by making false allegations and raising baseless
criticism against them. Related article :
Stop Media treachery against armed forces members! |
