Tidbits from the region’s media

Evidently the Sri Lankan government is looking to reform its image in the international media. How? By chiding journalists for the poor job they have done! Prime Minister D M Jayaratne recently stated that it was the duty of the foreign press to create a 'positive image' of the country. The local press, meanwhile, might be forgiven for being a bit wary of any official claim about an attitudinal change towards the media. After all, President Mahinda Rajapakse had to reassign Meryvn Silva from his post as deputy media minister scarcely two weeks after his appointment, as it became apparent that Silva was responsible for serious attacks on journalists. In public remarks, Silva had stated that Lasantha Wickrematunge, the senior journalist murdered in January 2009, 'went overboard. I took care of him. Poddala [Jayantha, a journalist assaulted in June 2009] agitated and his leg was broken.' Evidently, Silva had also taken to physically and verbally attacking members of the press himself, just the kind of hands-on attitude one would appreciate from a public servant under different circumstances. In seems that it would be helpful if responsibility for creating a 'positive image' for the country were to begin falling to the government itself. Meanwhile, the top ministerial job related to governing the media has now gone to Keheliya Rambukwella, the former defence-affairs spokesman.

Sri Lanka sat near the bottom of Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index for 2009, at number 162 – just ahead of Saudi Arabia and Somalia, and behind, well, pretty much everyone else. In the government's defence, to mark World Press Freedom Day in May, it did pardon Jeyaprakash Tissainayagam, the Tamil journalist who had received a 20-year sentence for his writings. Attorney-General Mohan Peiris has also been making soothing statements about the safety of self-exiled journalists, if they were to return to the island. Of course, with an impunity ranking of fourth in the world by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Peiris might find his comments more reassuring if he acted on long-ignored cases of violence against journalists. Otherwise, the press might think it is safer to be behind bars than working the beat in Sri Lanka.

The Internet has recently moved a step – though only an itty-bitty one – closer to transitioning from a tower of babble to the Tower of Babel. ICANN, the organisation vested with the responsibility to assign Internet domain names (for a fee), has recently permitted, for the first time, web addresses with no Latin characters. Actually, though, the new change refers only to the diminutive tag, or 'root', following the 'dot' (ie, 'dot-com'), which will now allow countries to assign a country name in their native script. The first to be rolled out is Arabic. Particularly interesting will be how this will play out in places where language and nation are at loggerheads – a postcolonial feature particularly prominent in the countries of our region. For instance, Tamil is slated to follow soon, which will have interesting ripple effects on diasporic Tamil-nationalist sentiment.

Just to show us what a bhai-bhai globalised world we live in, the fallout from the recent South Park episode satirising the prohibitions on free speech – by putting the Prophet Mohammad in a bear suit to, technically, dodge having to depict him – has reached the Subcontinent in dramatic and hysterical (dis)proportion. While many find the depiction of the prophet offensive, others found not being able to depict the prophet offensive as well. Enter Facebook: A group of artists responded to the slight by asking people to 'draw a Muhammad' on 20 May, via a Facebook group page and WordPress blog. It was quickly deluged with comments like, "Burn in hell, you morons! Islam is about peace!" (In that order. In the same comment.)

Apparently more hurt than the rest of the ummah, Pakistan went a step further, and organs of the state jumped into the fray. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked the URLs related to 'Draw a Muhammad Day', and the religiocrats took to the streets. Reporters breathlessly told viewers about the evil, two-faced, Western (possibly Zionist) propaganda tool called Facebook.Meanwhile, a little-known group of 'Islamic lawyers' filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, deeming the block insufficient, so the court ordered a temporary ban on the entire website. Dissenters quickly found proxies to bypass the ban, calling it 'civil disobedience'. As Blackberries and mobile devises bypassed the ban too, Blackberry services had to go. The PTA, in a press release, helpfully stated that 'complaint@pta.gov.pk can be used to notify all similar URLs where such objectionable material is found.' Quickly, the floodgates were lifted – Wikipedia, YouTube and Flickr were also blocked, as wells as 450 other sites in one day, including proxy sites. At this rate, Pakistan might have an easier time simply telling its citizens what sites aren't offensive.

Along with the planet's temperature, the united front between India and China at the global-warming summit in Copenhagen in December (and thereafter) might have been sign of a warming relationship. But the climate has been erratic. India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, a force of nature unto himself, has brewed up a storm of controversy. On a trip to Beijing in May, he suggested that India's stance towards Chinese businesses was 'alarmist' and 'paranoid', and that India should 'treat China more as a trustworthy partner rather than a potential competitor' – comments the Chinese media ate up. Ramesh's references appeared to be with regards to Chinese telecom companies, whose businesses in India have been blocked on security concerns, including the possibility of malware in equipment they manufacture. Home Minister P Chidambaram (Ramesh's squabbling partner) complained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Ramesh tendered his resignation – which was quickly rejected, as per script.

What has not received as much coverage was the outspoken minister's hard stance in Beijing on Arunachal Pradesh (or the 'southern Tibet Autonomous Region', if one were to use the term China has been bandying about) and India's hydro-electric interests. Ramesh (or at least his mouth) has long been seen as something of a loose cannon, and consequently one gets a sense that this might be an attempt to see that he gets his comeuppance.

Elsewhere on the plateau, the Chinese authorities have recently been taking actions that make Chhetria Patrakar's luddite heart go pitter-patter. In late May, officials announced that, in an effort to crack down on pesky, pernicious pamphleteers, photocopy shops in Lhasa would now be forced to take down detailed information from every single person who wanted to make a copy. (For instance: Name? Identification number? Is that some Thomas Paine you've got there?) Oh for the days when pamphleteering was considered dangerous enough to force individual-level regulation of photocopy centres! A few days later, the Dalai Lama himself seemed to enter the discussion over the danger of media technology past and present: responding, in Mandarin, to 300 of some 1100 questions submitted by web users from mainland China, via Twitter. No word on whether photocopy shops saw a spike in business in the following hours.

CP absolutely believes in free speech, which is why we're cheering on The Hoot website, which has recently set up the 'Free Speech Hub' (http://thehoot.org/web/freetracker/indexfree.php). It tracks violations of freedom of speech, and aims to 'resist censorship of the media and culture by political, religious, corporate or any other forces.' Just the kind of mission that is likely get it censored.

–Chhetria Patrakar