TamilNet
Type of site | Online newspaper |
---|---|
Founder(s) | Muthuthamby Sreetharan |
URL | www |
Launched | 1997 |
Current status | Active |
TamilNet is an online newspaper that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War. The website was formed by members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community residing in the United States and publishes articles in English,[1] German and French.
It is Tamil nationalist and is described as a pro LTTE website.[2]
Tamilnet and
Operations
TamilNet was founded in 1995 by a group of
Perceptions
Mark Whitaker, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Carolina and research collaborator of former senior TamilNet editor Taraki Sivaram, argues that TamilNet merely shares the Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist ideology of the LTTE and is not an arm of the organization. For instance, he says TamilNet had once fired a sub-editor who had become an activist for the LTTE. He also says TamilNet has faced complaints and "extreme displeasure" from both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE. Whitaker also says the LTTE has been deeply unhappy of "undue" coverage given on TamilNet to criticism of the organization by international human rights organizations. However, Whitaker believes much of the criticism directed at TamilNet by the LTTE is off public view, since the LTTE considers such moves as weakening Tamil nationalism.[1]
According to ARTICLE 19, a global human rights organization with a specific mandate and focus on the defense and promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide, the news website although some claim it has an LTTE bias, it has over its ten-year life span, earned a reputation for providing alternative news and opinions with a particular focus on the North and East of the country, operating under the banner of "Reporting to the World on Tamil Affairs". It is relied upon as a credible news source by journalists, civil society and the diplomatic community both within Sri Lanka and globally. Over the years, the site has endured various threats and attacks, including the gunning down in April 2005 of editor, Sivaram Dharmaratnam.[4]
Criticism and Counter-Criticism
Experts in the field argue TamilNet's accuracy of its reporting has "rarely been successfully challenged that such charges ring hollow". According to V. Sambandan, Sri Lanka Special Correspondent for the Indian English daily The Hindu, "facts and figures are double sourced, checked and are considered 100% credible".[1]
However a Sri Lanka analyst for the prominent Indian English daily The Hindu, whose chief editor N. Ram was awarded the Sri Lanka Rathna and is noted for being virulently anti-LTTE,[11] [12] states "TamilNet (www.tamilnet.com) is the unofficial mouthpiece of the Tigers in English. It is a kind of news agency chronicling the conflict as perceived by the LTTE. The site is a `must hit' for any serious Sri Lanka watcher. A senior official in the Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat told Frontline, "My first port of call on the internet is TamilNet. Though it is brazenly pro-Tigers, it is a good guide to know the mind of the Tiger leadership tucked away in the safe havens of the Wanni jungles.".[13]
Threats and murders
It has been alleged that members associated with various Sri Lankan political parties have threatened reporters of TamilNet with arrest for "treason", and once hinted, that "uncontrolled extremists might be inspired to perform some extra-judicial killing".
In 2004, Ramasamy Thurairatnam, a correspondent for the Lakehouse press group and the TamilNet.com news website, claimed that his life was in danger because a local
In 2005, TamilNet's editor
The LTTE has accused the government of complicity in his murder, regional political party leader and a former LTTE member was personally involved in the murder of Taraki Sivaram, Karuna has categorically denied it.[25][26]
Ban in Sri Lanka
According to
"The ban on Tamilnet is the first instance of what the FMM believes may soon be a slippery slope of web & Internet censorship in Sri Lanka. It is also a regrettable yet revealing extension of this Government’s threats against and coercion of print and electronic media in Sri Lanka since assuming office in late 2005.... The FMM stresses that the danger of censoring the web & Internet is that it gives a Government and State agencies with no demonstrable track record of protecting & strengthening human rights and media freedom flimsy grounds to violate privacy, curtail the free flow of information and restrict freedom of expression"[27]
When questioned by reporters, Government Minister
The Human Rights group Article 19 in a press release on 20 June 2007, said the following regarding the ban on TamilNet: "Until now, control measures have largely been directed at local media. Applying these measures to the Internet represents a serious escalation which threatens to cut off an important source of independent and alternative news. This not only threatens press freedom but also undermines efforts to address the conflict."[4]
See also
- Afghan Times
- Kurdish Media
- Sudan Tribune
- Savukku
- Tangatawhenua
Notes
- Sri Lankan Tamil people. Both moderate Tamil United Liberation Front and Tamil National Alliance and militant groups such as LTTE, Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, PLOTE, EPDP etc. have expressed such political goals either in the past or now.[31]
- ^ Extra Judicial killing: Sri Lankans have suffered a spate of extra judicial killings since the beginning of the civil war. The UN and other international bodies have expressed grave concern over the spate of extra judicial killings in Sri Lanka.[32]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Whitaker, Mark (31 August 2006). "Tamilnet.com: Some Reflections on Popular Anthropology, Nationalism, and the Internet". Anthropological Quarterly. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
- ^ "Sri Lanka profile". BBC News. 31 January 2012.
- ^ "Sri Lanka military in jungle clash". Al Jazeera. 20 June 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2007.
- ^ ARTICLE 19. 31 August 2006. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
- ^ Gardner, Simon (31 August 2006). "Tamil Tigers warn Sri Lanka offensive could end truce". Reuters. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
- ^ "Sri Lanka rebels 'call ceasefire'". BBC News. 17 May 2009. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
- ^ "Sri Lankan military says 11 soldiers killed in fierce battle with rebels in the north". Associated Press. 8 September 2006. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
- ^ "Peace hopes rise as Tigers 'agree' to talk". Agence France-Presse. 28 September 2006. Retrieved 7 October 2006.
- ^ "Sri Lanka Air Force bombs rebel positions in north". Xinhua News Agency. 22 September 2006. Retrieved 7 October 2006.
- ^ "LTTE to regroup as political body". Al Jazeera. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 28 August 2009.http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/20096173150357259.html
- ^ Maya Ranganathan (2009) Experiencing eelam.com: terror online, South Asian History and Culture, 1:1, 71-85, DOI: 10.1080/19472490903387241
- ^ "TamilNet".
- ^ Article Title[usurped]
- ^ Nine recommendations for improving the state of press freedom Archived 29 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine (19 July 2004)
- ^ CPJ Report Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, free-lancer killed (1 December 2000)
- ^ "Sri Lanka's vernacular press and the peace process" (PDF). Retrieved 27 November 2011.
- ^ Ex EPDP confesses to the killing TamilNet report (4 July 2002)
- ^ Frontline report[usurped] End of a dissenter (21 May 2005)
- ^ Amnesty International report ASA 37/010/2001(2001)
- ^ "TamilNet editor's murder still unpunished after one year". International Federation of Journalists. 28 April 2005. Archived from the original on 22 August 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2007.
- ^ Sivaram killing: AG indicts PLOTE leader’s driver(21 July 2006)
- ^ "LTTE accuses SLA Intelligence, para-militaries for Sivaram's murder". TamilNet. 30 April 2005. Retrieved 2 October 2006.
- ^ SLMM June Report Archived 28 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine 2006
- ^ Child Soldiers: Government Failing to Investigate or Stop Karuna Group Human Rights Watch (29 March 2007)
- ^ Did Karuna Personally kill "Taraki" Sivaram? 2006
- ^ Karuna's response to accusations about Taraki murder 2007
- ^ a b "Clamping down on the Internet: The ban on Tamilnet in Sri Lanka". FMM. 20 June 2007. Retrieved 20 June 2007.
- ^ "Tamilnet blocked in Sri Lanka". BBC. 21 June 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2007.
- ^ "Popular website shut down". Japan Today. 21 June 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2007.
- ^ "Colombo admits to cyber terrorism- FMM". Tamilnet. 22 June 2007. Retrieved 22 June 2007.
- ^ Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, By Professor A. Jeyaratnam Wilson
Publisher: ISBN 1-85065-338-0)
- ^ APWLD/FA Statement on extrajudicial killing in Sri Lanka, Philippines and Chechnya at the UN Human Rights Council Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Asia Pacific forum on Women, Law and Development 2006
Further reading
- Nurturing a Nation on the Net: The Case of ISSN 1353-7113
- Nurturing Eelam on the net: the transmission of nationalist ideologies through Sri Lankan Tamil websites, by Maya Ranganathan, Clayton, Vic.: Monash Asia Institute, 2006 See infor here
- "Potential of the Net to Construct and Convey Ethnic and National Identities: Comparison of the Use in the Sri Lankan Tamil and Kashmir Situations", by Maya Ranganathan, Asian Ethnicity: Taylor & Francis Group, 2004
- Learning Politics from Sivaram, The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka, by Mark P. Whitaker Publisher: Pluto Press (UK) 2007 (ISBN 0-7453-2353-7)
- "Internet and media freedom: Media censorship in Sri Lanka and the emergence of Web-based rebel media" by Kasun Ubayasiri. AsiaPacific MediaEducator, Issue 12/13, December 2002 See info here
- "A virtual Eelam: Democracy, Internet and Sri Lanka’s Tamil struggle" by ISBN 0-9749177-5-3)