But exactly three days after it was Gazetted, President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself revoked this Extraordinary Gazette Notification No. 1521/3 titled ‘Prohibition on Publication and Transmission of Sensitive Military Informatio’ Regulations No. 6 of 2007,’ stating that he essentially wants to have a free media in the country. He said that since the Sri Lankan media had acted in a responsible manner during the recent past, he had decided to revoke the notification.

But was that the only reason for revoking the controversial regulation or were there some other reasons? With the announcement of the revocation of the regulations, Director General of the Media Center for National Security Lakshman Hulugalle said the decision to impose such tough regulations was a development in the aftermath of the Tissamaharama incident, where the Asian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in its radio channel reportedly aired some false news report.

“Following the Tissamaharama incident, which led to the cancellation of the licence of ABC broadcasting Service, the President decided to introduce this regulation, but since then, as we monitored the media in Sri Lanka, we have noticed that it worked in a more responsible manner, so considering this development, the President decided to withdrew the notification,” Mr. Hulugalle told the Daily Mirror on Wednesday night.

Though Mr. Hulugalle claimed that the reason to impose the regulation was to tackle irresponsible reporting, this Gazette notification, itself clearly stated that it was aimed at preventing the media from reporting ‘on proposed operations or military activity to be carried out by the armed forces or the Police and the purchasing of military hardware for the armed forces.’

It is a known fact that in the recent months, the government wanted to impose some restriction on reporting military matters in the media in the wake of several controversial media reports detailing casualty figures during the recent battles in the eastern and northern war theaters. Also the reporting of military procurements, including the MiG 27 deal, and the varied accounts of the damage caused to the Air Force following the attack on the Anuradhapura airbase. As an example, some senior defence ministry officials, it is learnt, had emphasized with the President that some sensitive information had been leaked to the media regarding the air base attack.

The Gazette notification reads:

No Editor or Publisher of a Newspaper or any other publication or any person who manages or operates a Broadcasting Station or a Television Station, shall print, publish, distribute or transmit whether by means of electronic devices or otherwise, or cause to be printed, published, distributed or transmitted whether by electronic means or otherwise, any material containing any matter which pertains to any proposed operations or military activity to be carried out by the Armed Forces or the Police Force (including the Special Task Force) or the deployment of troops or personnel, the availability or use of arms, ammunition or other equipment, including aircraft or naval vessels, by the Armed Forces or the Police Force (including the Special Task Force) and the proposed acquisition of arms, ammunition or other equipment, including aircraft or naval vessels by the Armed Forces or the Police Force (including the Special Task Force) which pertains to any operation or other military activity to be carried out by the Armed Forces or the Police Force (including the Special Task Force), for the purpose of maintaining or protecting national security, territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

Under the new regulation a journalist could be jailed for a maximum for 05 years for violating the censorship and a fine of maximum five thousand rupees could be imposed. The Gazette notification further states: ‘Any person who prints, publishes, distributes or transmits any material in contravention of the provisions of regulation 3 shall be guilty of an offence shall on conviction after trial before the High Court without a jury or before a Magistrate, be liable to rigorous imprisonment for a term not less than three months and not exceeding five years and to a fine of not less than five hundred rupees and not exceeding five thousand rupees.’

It is also stated that the President was to appoint a competent authority to impose the censorship.

However, the Daily Mirror has reliably learnt that with the publishing of this controversial Gazette there was heavy pressure on the government from certain sections in the country, including President Rajapaksa’s own Cabinet ministers. During Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, all Cabinet Ministers unanimously agreed to revoke the notification as it would create unnecessary problems to the Rajapaksa administration.

Several senior Cabinet ministers aware of the publication of this Gazette had phoned President Rajapaksa and expressed consternation on such an action and expressed their protest more forcefully during the cabinet meeting, as they considered that such an action would create a crisis situation at this moment.

Rumours were floating around that some of the media groups too had decided to go before Courts against the government’s sudden decision to impose a censorship as per the Gazette notification

Considering these rumours and the action that were being contemplated, the President it is learnt had decided to withdraw the controversial gazette notification.

In June this year the government decided to bring criminal defamation law, but could not bring it as three senior ministers opposed it. At an emergency cabinet meeting held on June 2007 a paper was submitted to the cabinet in this regard in order to bring in the new law but it was put on hold as three ministers including a former media minister opposed the re-introduction of criminal defamation laws.

However, now the Government has shown the media that it could bring tough regulation at anytime. Now the question is whether it is the tip of the iceberg, as the government has tried at least on two earlier occasions to impose the same regulations in oder to restrict the media coverage on ‘sensitive military coverage’. Or is it some kind of indirect threat to the media to stop covering such matters in the future, as it is clear that after the cancellation of the ABC license, most of the Sri Lankan media has hesitated to publish or telecast sensitive military related reports fearing the government would take tough action against such institutions.

Censorship on military reporting

President Chandrika Kumaratunga in June 1998 imposed a military censorship under the Emergency (Prohibition on Publication and Transmission of Sensitive Military Information) Regulation No: 1 of 1998, and prevented journalists from reporting on the war, discussing the procurement of military weapons and anything else affecting the morale of police or security forces. Publication of statements on the official conduct or performance of the security forces was also disallowed.

This was for the third time since September 1995 under the People’s Alliance Government. During this period fierce clashes were going on between the government troops and the LTTE in the north and eastern war theatres where the military lost key strategically important camps and thousands of soldiers during Eelam war III.

During that period the then Sri Lankan government shut down two weekly newspapers in May 2000, accusing them of publishing articles without permission. Officials declared that the English-language weekend paper, the Sunday Leader, and the Sinhala-language Sunday Peramuna had violated censorship laws.In the same month, the government banned the Uthayan paper, a Tamil daily based in Jaffna, in addition the police interrogated the news editor of the private television channel Teleshan Network, threatening it with closure.

The government has also blocked broadcasts by CNN and the BBC World Service in the local channels.

On May 30, 2001, President Chandrika Kumaratunga lifted the Emergency (Prohibition on Publication and Transmission of Sensitive Military Information) Regulation.

Censorship imposed by the ruling People’s Alliance government on 21 September 1995 continued till 20 December that year, during which period the military launched Operation Riviresa I to take Jaffna city.

Censorship was reintroduced on 19 April 1996 as the Army began Operation Riviresa II to capture the southern Thennamarachchi area in the Jaffna peninsula, and was in force until 6 October 1996.

Technically advanced UAVs for SLAF

Nearly two weeks after the LTTE attack on the Anuradhapura Sri Lanka Air Force base (SLAF), plans are underway to replace some of the destroyed military aircraft, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as several countries have come forward to sell their products.

Last week, India announced that it was ready to supply the Sri Lankan armed forces with anti aircraft guns. Earlier India provided air defense radar in order to facilitate early detection of the LTTE’s light aircraft.

During the airbase attack, at least three UAVs operated by the 11th UAV flight Squadron were completely destroyed striking a major blow to the Sri Lanka Air Force aerial surveillance capability.

Accordingly several new sophisticated UAVs will join the SLAF fleet by the end of this month. It is also reported that the new UAVs would be more technically advanced than some of the UAVs that were destroyed in the air base attack.

During the attack, the multi-million dollar worth Beechcraft surveillance aircraft was completely destroyed.

But the air force had another Beechcraft which was grounded due to technical faults. It is also learnt that arrangements have been made to repair it within a short period and use it for surveillance operations.10

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