Response to The Hoot column ¿Second Take¿
Letter to the Hoot: The tone and tenor of the analysis leaves me with no choice but to characterise it as the work of of a mindset whose body is perhaps attuned to GMT rather than IST.
MURALIDHAR REDDY responds to Kalpana Sharma’s column
I am pained at the column titled `SECOND TAKE’ by a person named Kalpana Sharma posted on your web site on June 3, 09. Since, the column has no dateline and the Hoot has not carried an introductory note on the author, I would not take the liberty of making any assumptions. I would refrain from any comment on the fetish of the author for BBC, barbed wire and barbarism inside the cluster of camps at the Manik Farm complex housing 2.12 lakh of the 2.8 lakh people displaced in Sri Lanka’s just concluded (May 19 to be precise) military campaign targeting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
As a reporter of The Hindu/Frontline, based in Colombo since June 15, 2006, I can say with a certain sense of responsibility that the 899 word long `second take’ peddled as analysis of the contrast in the reportage by BBC and the Indian media contingent is full of factual errors. The tone and tenor of the analysis leaves me with no choice but to characterise it as the work of fertile imagination, and a mindset whose body is perhaps attuned to GMT rather than IST. The outright condescending attitude of the author towards the entire Indian media involved in the coverage of the war and the consequent humanitarian crisis triggered by it, and the attempted glorification of BBC reporter (s) as torch bearers of truth angels smacks of utter contempt for any thing Indian.
Here are my issues with some of the specific points related to Sri Lanka
"Over those two weeks, Sri Lanka
Contrary to what the author makes out the crisis was not born on May 20. The displacement of people began with the commencement of Eelam War IV in August 2006 and went on till the afternoon of May 16 and will be a continuous process till people are able to return to their original places of habitation. There are no precise estimates of the last batch of civilians caught up in the war to flee the conflict zone on May 16 (displaced for the nth time) but by no stretch of imagination could the number be above 5,000.
"There are an estimated 220,000 people in just one camp, Manik Farms, according to the UN, the largest single camp of displaced people anywhere in the world".
It is not one camp but a cluster of 20 odd camps in a complex spread over 1,000 hectares. I am not sure if the characterization of the `camp as the largest anywhere in the world¿ is correct as there is no clarity yet on the whereabouts of 26 lakh people who were displaced in the Swat conflict zone in Pakistan since May 2. 2009.
"By any stretch, this is a story that the Indian media should have followed even with limited access".
The assertion of the author appears to be premised on the basis that the camps for the displaced sprang up after the Sri Lanka Colombo
"Yet, the live reports from Sri Lanka
DRY UP. As I pen these lines there are half a dozen Colombo-based Indian journalists who continue to file and relay images from the island nation. To the best of my knowledge, the last contingent of Indian electronic media to leave Sri Lanka India
"The embedded journalists who reported then came back, or interviewed officials in Colombo
`Embedded journalists¿ came back from where or interviewed which officials in Colombo
"Even if official access to the camps is denied journalists and foreign aid agencies, surely there is a way of getting this news".
Access to camps is not denied to either journalists or foreign aid agencies. What is denied is unfettered access. As per the UN 18 of its and other international NGO¿s have access to these camps and restrictions on them pertain only to the number of vehicles they are allowed to take inside the complex. Government of Sri Lanka India February 24, 2009 on a military guided tour. Subsequently, several teams of foreign journalists have been able to secure limited access after clearance from the Defence Ministry and have visited the camps accompanied by various officials in Sri Lanka
"A few reports did appear about Manik Farms after a group of foreign journalists accompanied the UN Secretary General when he visited Sri Lanka
Suddenly Mark farm camp becomes Manik Farms. The reference of the author is to the group of western media journalists travelling with Mr. Ban-ki Moon on his two-day visit (May 22-23) to Sri Lanka. No Indian journalist was part of his media contingent.
"Indian journalists tended to report only what they heard and saw. There was not an iota of scepticism or questioning in their reports. By way of contrast, the BBC reporter, who saw exactly the same things, was able to convey much more, such as the barbed wire surrounding the camp, the fact that people are not being allowed to return until they are cleared, that the elderly are suffering severe dehydration etc".
Only a person with a GMT mindset could make such a sweeping generalization of the Indian media coverage. As mentioned earlier there were 10 Indian journalists who were part of the first military conducted tour to the camps on February 24, 2009 and to the best my knowledge, the reports of Indian journalists from the flying visit were extensive. Here is a report from The Hindu edition dated February 26 that hopefully quenches the thirst of the author for barbed wire variety reportage.
February 26, 2009 , The Hindu
Agony unlimited at a village for displaced
B. Muralidhar Reddy
An uncertain future faces families in a relief village near Vavuniya town. — PHOTO: AP
The people at Manik Farm desperately yearn to return to their homes but know such a prospect in the near future is bleak.
It has been an unending ordeal for Dinesh Kumar and his four-member family who were settled near the Lady of Madu Church in Mannar district, since the latest round of hostilities between the Sri Lanka
http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/26/stories/2009022655331100.htm
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"While some of the print media still provides space for foreign news, much of it tends to be either political news or flippant Hollywood gossip. As a result, there is no room for the human interest stories from our neighbouring countries that people would want to read".
Once again, a broad sweep that only seeks to reinforce the stereotype that India
Here are reports from The Hindu, whose staffer was among the 70 member contingent of international media to be taken on a military conducted tour to the Manik Farm Complex on May 26, 2009 . The contingent included at least a dozen Indian media personnel from the print and electronic media.
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May 27, 2009 The Hindu
Multiple displacements, total loss of identity
B. Muralidhar Reddy
MANIK FARM COMPLEX (Vavuniya district): Some time on May 10, a week before the Sri Lankan military decimated the military capabilities of the LTTE and wiped out its entire top brass, the Tigers had informed 80,000 civilians under their custody that they have lost the battle and were no longer in a position to defend them, conversation with a group of last batch of civilians to escape from the control of Tigers reveals.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/27/stories/2009052755811500.htm
Senior Tamil officer in search of his family
B. Muralidhar Reddy
"I have never seen so much devastation, pain and suffering even in a horror film"
The Hindu correspondent establishes telephonic contact with refugee¿s daughter in Colombo
Thousands among the 2.7 lakh refugees who escaped took with them their savings of years.
MANIK FARM COMPLEX (VAVUNIYA): Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. The case of Thuraiyappah Gathayaselan (who would turn 60 on October 31), an Assistant Director in the Sri Lanka Ministry of Education posted at Vadamarachi in the Jaffna peninsula, is perhaps a telling example.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/28/stories/2009052860441000.htm
May 30, 2009 The Hindu
SLAS officers among displaced
B. Muralidhar Reddy
MANIK FARM COMPLEX (VAVUNIYA): At least two officers of the Sri Lankan Administrative Service (SLAS - equivalent of the IAS in India
http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/31/stories/2009053154991100.htm
Date: 01/06/2009
Mystery shrouds presence of British woman in Tiger territory
B. Muralidhar Reddy
MANIK FARM COMPLEX (Vavuniya): A British woman citizen, Damilvany Gnanakumar, – known as Vani – being questioned by the Sri Lankan authorities after she fled along with the last batch of civilians from the LTTE¿s clutches has raised two vital questions. How did she land in the island nation and how did she stay on in the Tiger-controlled territory for nearly 15 months?
http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/01/stories/2009060158971100.htm
"If you go by the redefined understanding of what constitutes news these days, one would be compelled to accept the latter proposition. But in an increasingly globalised world, where developments somewhere else are beginning to have a direct bearing on our lives, it is plain stupid of our media to adopt an ostrich-like approach to foreign news. The only way we gain perspective about what is happening in our country is if we know what is happening outside our borders".
A profound statement. However, the bit on `it is plain stupid of our media¿ rings hollow in the `SECOND TAKE¿ of The Hoot. If only the author had chanced upon a recent survey carried by The Hoot on a comparative analysis of coverage of the
Yours sincerely,
B. Muralidhar Reddy
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