Media rights groups condemn CID attempts to question journalists over ’’garlic scam’’

A coalition of six media rights organizations have condemned attempts by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to question editors and journalists of several newspapers over their reporting on the "garlic scam." 

Issuing a statement, the Media Organizations Collective (MOC) notes that the CID has issued summons on editors and journalists at the Lankadeepa, Divaina and The Island newspapers over their reporting of the garlic scam based on revelations made by former Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) Executive Director Thushan Gunawardena. The group has condemned these attempts and has termed it a "shameless attempt to protect wrongdoers and prevent exposing corruption."

Instead of acting to investigate corrupt activities exposed by the media, the police, under the direction of Minister Bandula Gunawardana, has gone after journalists to probe what the minister claims are defamatory articles published against him over the matter, the statement emphasises. This is happening while laws related to criminal defamation have been repealed since 2002, they point out. "As such, attempts to question journalists without any legal basis shows an emerging trend where journalists are being harrased for their reporting due to political motives."

Though the Prime Minister had instructed the CID not to summon journalists over the matter, CID officers had visited the office of the Lankadeepa newspaper on September 28, which happened to be the International Day for Universal Access to Information. The newspaper's editor had refused to give a statement to the CID. However, it is extremely unjustified for police to be used as a political tool to hunt journalists who are exposing fraud and corruption, the organization stresses. 

The statement states that the Media Minister's subsequent apology over the incident is not enough. The media, which is the fourth pillar of the state in a democratic society, has a duty to expose fraud and corruption. However, attempts to intimidate journalists over such revelations instead of investigating the illegal acts exposed by them goes beyond attempts to suppress free speech. It can escalate into a process aimed at protecting the corrupt and ignoring fraud and corruption, the statement warns. 

The six media rights groups who have signed the petition under the banner of the MOC are the Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association, the Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, Tamil Media Forum and the Sri Lanka Young Journalists' Association.