IN Sri Lankan print media, the white spaces in the news columns have disappeared. and Sunday newspapers have

been published freely on Monday last for the first time in three months, after the Supreme Court ruled last week that censorship was illegal. English, Sinhala and Tamil newspapers all sold briskly, say wire agencies, as people rushed to buy papers containing news, features and cartoons previously deleted by the censor The pro-opposition Sunday Leader. which was closed down by the government, reappeared with articles highly critical of President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has applauded Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ruling. However, the court did not rule against censorship itself. On the next day. it was learnt that the government brought in new regulations that permit the appointment of a censor. In its editorial. the Sunday Times said: The government must come to terms with the reality that we are in the new information age. Relying on archaic precedents and old-fashioned repression of the press will get them nowhere."

However, this ongoing civil has costing the country a lot The government introduced censorship after the army suffered big setbacks against Tamil Tiger rebels in the separatist conflict in the north. It seems the government was compelled to Institute draconian legislation to curb the freedom of press citing the urgency of the military situation prevailing

there. The legislation included harsh censorship laws promulgated under the Public Security Ordinance. Limited censorship, however, was already in existence before this new legislation was promulgated. Censorship was introduced about two years ago on military news by the government in the wake of military successes of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and bomb explosions in Lankan cities.

The Riling Peoples' Alliance (PA) party has had a rough ride with the media over the five years it has been in power. Though ft promised full media freedom in its election manifesto. with the war against the LTTE resuming and its electoral battles with the opposition United National Party (UNP). things began to change.

The resumption of the war. say the regional analysts, had the media exposing corruption in the military, inept government leadership and nepotism. The government responded by tightening screws on the media. It accused the privately owned media of being hand-in-glove with the UNP and even of conspiring with the LTTE. It reportedly hounded editors of prominent national newspapers with criminal defamation laws and used state-owned media organs as vehicles for propagating party propaganda.

In mid-April this year. Elephant Pass military base, an extensive and highly fortified military' complex at the gateway to Jaffna fell to the rebels. The LTTE recognises Jaffna as the cultural capital of the Tamil homeland it is fighting for.

Inspired no doubt by patriotic fires, sections of mainstream media played a major

part in painting Elephant Pass as an impregnable fortification. The public that had been lulled into a sense of complacency realised the awful truth only when Elephant Pass fell. Public anger soared and the media, which was already critical of the government's handling of the war chipped in. accusing it of sacrificing soldiers' lives needlessly. of corruption in munitions purchases and a military campaign that was linked to achieving political targets and not military ones.

At the same time, the political opposition began attacking the government on the same charges. The political mobilisation that was taking place occurred on two fronts. On the one hand opposition parties such as the UNP and the Janath Vimukthi Peramuna (which was involved in two armed insurrections against the state, but is today a radical parliamentary party), criticised the government on the issue of Inept handling of the war Again, extreme right-wing Sinhala elements, both within the political mainstream and the fringe groups, found a cause around which to coalesce. While their main platform was that LTTE terrorism should be wiped out. they also took few pains to conceal the fact that they considered all Tamils a threat to Sinhala nationhood and therefore be targeted and wiped out. Furthermore, they were critical of both the PA and the UNP for mishandling the war and being too soft on terrorism'.

The PA realising that it was being attacked on several fronts simultaneously panicked. It was worried that extreme Sinhala racism could target Tamil civilians outside the battle areas of the northeast at a time when

Sri Lanka was in the International media spotlight. Second, and more Important, with all manner of forces mobilising against the government, it felt that if it had to keep itself from being politically outflanked, harsh measures had to be introduced.

And it turned to the Public Security Ordinance that had helped other governments too. previously, in times of adversity, to survive slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

The censorship was accom-, pantoLfry a upmbpr of other measures promulgated by,the President under the Public Security Ordinance's chapter 40. Under the Sri Lanka's Constitution the President can promulgate emergency regulations without asking parliament. However the extension of the emergency has to be debated in parliament every month.

Censorship gives the competent authority appointed by the government, power to prevent or restrict p u b 1 i c a -tion/broadcast in Sri Lanka, or to transmit outside Sri Lanka, matters prejudicial to the interests of national security, preservation of public order and maintenance of essential services. The competent authority can also restrict the publication of material inciting civil commotion, riot or mutiny. What is more, bringing the President and the Judiciary into disrepute are also punishable offences. The media on whom restrictions are imposed include press, television. cinema etc.

The President, under the new laws, can enforce the will of the government by arresting editors and publishers, or by sealing media institutions. An advisory board was appointed to which media institutions that feel they have been unfairly

treated could appeal. Most Journalists, however, doubt that these bodies could function free of government interference

Except for defiance by one or two publications, the media houses have gone along with the censorship. There are basically two reasons. One is that most of the media houses are part of celebrated commercial empires, whose proprietors are worried that any transgression would mean sustained targeting of their commercial enterprises by the government. Secondly. th<(’rc is. still a sense, of patriotism where certain media institutions believe that speaking the truth about the war could be demoralising to the forces that prop up Sinhala hegemony over the minorities.

While most media houses remain timid in the face of the censorship, there is almost consensus that the restrictions on the media, political parties and political activity, is not for the preservation of national security and public order, but to stifle all opposition to the regime.

While all these restrictions operate, informs a Colombobased journalists Jayaprakash Tlssainayagam. one medium that the government has been unable to censor is the Internet. Being yet an expensive mode of communication in Sri Lanka, only a relatively small fraction of people have access to it. However, they are the decisionmaking. commercial and professional elite. Even if the government feels they are not the 'trouble-making types', rumour cannot easily be stifled, which means an exaggerated and distorted versions of what is gleaned from the Net often reaches the streets.