The Uncorrupted Truth

A detailed rebuttal of
Corrupted Journalism: Channel 4 and Sri Lanka
Callum Macrae
2
No Fire Zone is one of the most chilling documentaries Ive watched.
Many of the images are truly shocking.
This documentary raises very serious questions that the Sri Lankan
government must answer about what it did to protect innocent
civilians. Questions that strengthen the case for an independent
investigation. Questions that need answers if Sri Lanka is to build the
truly peaceful and inclusive future its people deserve.
David Cameron, British Prime Minister
3
A detailed rebuttal of
Corrupted Journalism:
Channel 4 and Sri Lanka
Channel 4s coverage of the final months of the civil war in Sri Lanka and its exposure of
allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity have reverberated around the world.
Its coverage of the war between the separatist rebels known as the Tamil Tigers, and the
government of Sri Lanka included reports by Channel 4 News, two multi-award winning TV
documentaries, Sri Lankas Killing Fields and War Crimes Unpunished, and a 90 minute feature
documentary No Fire Zone. The coverage has been cited as particularly influential by the UN, was
praised by the British Prime Minister and even saw its production team nominated for a Nobel
Peace Prize.
But this journalism has not been popular everywhere. At the end of 2013 an organization called
Engage Sri Lanka, which says its mission is to promote trade between the UK and Sri Lanka,
published a hefty 222 page book called Corrupted Journalism: Channel 4 and Sri Lanka, which
professed to demonstrate in considerable detail that Channel 4s journalism was variously
unfair, inaccurate, biased and shoddy. It is not known who funded the publication, the authors
are anonymous, and no address is given for the publisher. Engage Sri Lanka and their offshoot,
Sri Lanka Media Watch appear to have only an online existence on two websites and a Twitter
address which spark into life whenever there are broadcasts or publications which are critical of
the Government of Sri Lanka. So far they have issued pamphlets which are critical of Channel 4s
reporting, and of books by Gordon Weiss, the former UN spokesman in Sri Lanka, and Frances
Harrison, former BBC correspondent in the region.
Corrupted Journalism first appeared just before the controversial Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Sri Lanka in November 2013 and was widely distributed
at CHOGM and to journalists, academics and diplomats in the UK. It is also available online and
extracts have been published in several pro-government Sri Lankan newspapers and websites.
To most people the word corruption has a clear meaning. A corrupt sportsman, for example,
is one who game-fixes in exchange for payment; a corrupt council official is one who accepts a
bribe to look sympathetically at a planning application. By this common meaning, the Corrupted
Journalism alleged by the anonymous authors of this book will be interpreted as journalism
whose message is skewed or distorted in exchange for financial gain.(1) This is possibly the
most serious charge that could be levelled against a journalist and we reject it absolutely.
It is not true.
In this detailed rebuttal we examine every major point raised by the anonymous authors of this
book. In every case we show that the charges are wrong, misleading or simply unfounded. We
demonstrate that critical facts are omitted or distorted, and that their serious accusations have
no basis in fact.
So we dont just reject the criticisms, we demonstrate that they are utterly without foundation.
In every case our responses are carefully sourced and evidenced.
We will continue to tell the unbiased, uncorrupted truth as is our duty as journalists.
4
The Uncorrupted Truth
Introduction & Chapter One
Before dealing in detail with the specific allegations in Corrupted Journalism it is worth making a
general point about the approach of the anonymous authors.
A key part of their modus operandi is to misrepresent what we say then spend significant
amounts of time and space attacking that misrepresented view.
It is a technique they use repeatedly. For example most of the first chapter of Corrupted
Journalism concerns the undoubted crimes of the Tamil Tigers, or LTTE. At the same time the
authors disregard our clear criticisms of the LTTE and even suggest we are at best apologists for
the Tigers.
In chapter one, for example, they say that in describing the Tigers we preferred the term army
disregarding the material fact that that the LTTE was first and foremost a terrorist organization.
And they add:
It is not unnatural to assume that a viewer of the programme may well have thought of the
British army when Channel 4 referred to the LTTE as an army. It is a gross misrepresentation
to infer that the average LTTE terrorist is somehow on a par with British soldier.
In fact we make no comparison or even reference to the British army. Here is how we describe
the LTTE in No Fire Zone:
The Tigers used child soldiers and forcible conscription to create a ruthless army - funded by
elements of the Tamil Diaspora and a partially criminal international network. Militarily they
were prepared to use terror tactics against civilian and military targets, including the use of
suicide bombers.
Those lines of commentary are accompanied by pictures of child soldiers and archive footage of
a suicide bomber exploding himself in the middle of a group of civilian athletes and members of
the public.
In the first documentary Sri Lankas Killing Fields, we also make a solitary use of the term army
in relation to the LTTE: The Tigers themselves were a brutal army often conscripting child
soldiers and pioneering the use of suicide bombing.
Our single use of the word in the second TV documentary War Crimes Unpunished is:
The Tamil Tigers were a brutal but effective army fighting for the creation of an independent
state of Tamil Eelam. A war in which they were prepared to use conscription, child soldiers, and
even - as in this attempt to kill a government minister - suicide bombers.
Our description of the Tigers could not be clearer. The description of those sequences by the
anonymous authors of Corrupted Journalism could not be more misleading.
5
A Question of Timing
In the introduction to Corrupted Journalism the authors state: In Channel 4s first 60 minute
long programme LTTE human rights abuses received 49 seconds of air time.
Of course these films never set out to be histories
of the conflict they just cover the last four
months. But even so - and rather surprisingly in a
book supposedly criticising our accuracy these
figures are simply wrong. The film is actually 49
minutes long, not 60. In excess of 135 seconds
was devoted to describing the LTTE, their history
and their activities, of which over 50% was devoted
specifically to LTTE human rights abuses.
But there is a more important point. The crimes of
the Tigers are not in dispute - but a government
such as the Sri Lankan one, which claims to adhere
to international humanitarian law and the legal
conventions of war, is held to a higher standard.
Our films present carefully authenticated evidence
of crimes committed, but still denied, by the forces
of the government of Sri Lanka. The undoubted
crimes of the Tigers cannot be used to justify the
crimes of the governments forces.
Historical Fact or Partisan Assumption?
Another general problem with Corrupted Journalism is the frequency with which partisan
assumptions are presented as historical fact. An example is its description of the events which
followed the death of 13 Sri Lankan soldiers in a 1983 Tiger ambush, as inter-communal
violence.
In reality this inter-communal violence was a seven day-long anti-Tamil pogrom organized and
carried out by government supporters some of whom had been supplied with electoral rolls to
identify Tamils (the ethnicity of the Tamils was clear from their names).(2) As many as 3000
Tamil civilians were massacred, thousands of shops and homes were destroyed and somewhere
between 100,000 and 150,000 Tamils made homeless.
Corrupted Journalisms misrepresentation of historical fact is an important issue. It was exactly
such misrepresentation for example the portrayal of an organized pro-government anti-Tamil
pogrom as some kind of spontaneous inter-communal flare-up - which played into the hands of
the Tigers and allowed them to present themselves and the armed struggle as the only real
defence the Tamil civilians had.
6
A Case of Misrepresentation
But Corrupted Journalism consists of a lot more than generalities. Its 222 pages lay out in
apparently specific and carefully evidenced detail a catalogue of what it describes as inaccuracies,
misrepresentations and evidence of bias. The problem is that when this list is examined in any detail,
it is Corrupted Journalism which is distinguished by consistent inaccuracy and misrepresentation
beginning with the introduction.
Channel 4s professionalism and ethics were also called into question in the footage it
screened. In both of its programmes (referring to the two TV docs), Channel 4 misrepresented
film footage.
They say we presented film of a heavy artillery gun being fired as that of the Sri Lankan army,
when in fact it was footage of an LTTE artillery piece in action, and in a footnote they add: this
footage appears at minute 25.30 against claims of government shelling in the first film.
This claim is initially perplexing as there is no such footage anywhere near that time code.
There is however a graphic sequence in the second film (at 25.20) in which a soft-focus image
of an artillery piece is indeed included as part of an abstract montage, although the subject
under discussion at that point is a US attempt to persuade the government of Sri Lanka to
agree a cease-fire, and not, as Corrupted Journalism suggests in its footnote, against claims of
government shelling.
As Corrupted Journalism points out we also use this footage at different moments elsewhere in
both films, but at no point do we suggest it is a government gun. That would be absurd in any case
the men firing it are quite clearly wearing the Tigers distinctive striped camouflage fatigues.
We first use the footage at 1.53 in the first film as the first shot in a sequence which introduces
and explains what the LTTE was. The sequence also includes images of LTTE fighters, including
battle sequences and child soldiers. The commentary says:
For more than twenty five years the LTTE or Tamil Tigers fought for the creation of an independent
state in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. They saw it as the only answer to decades of sometimes
violent anti-Tamil discrimination by governments sympathetic to the Sinhalese majority
The Tigers themselves were a brutal army often conscripting child soldiers and pioneering the
use of suicide bombing.
7
It is untrue to suggest, as Corrupted Journalism does, that in that sequence we presented film of
a heavy artillery gun being fired as that of the Sri Lankan army. The footage then appears again
at 14.11 where the commentary refers specifically to The remaining Tamil Tigers.
They do present one example of inaccuracy in the introduction which is correct, though it
doesnt refer to any of the deeply serious charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes
or atrocities. They point out that we mistakenly refer to Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the Defence
Minister, when in fact his brother the president is technically the Defence Minister and Gotabaya
is the Defence Secretary. This was an error, though hardly one that undermines the serious and
carefully evidenced thrust of our documentaries. It was also the only inaccuracy in any of the
three films.
The Fog of War
The authors of Corrupted Journalism highlight the difficulties of reporting from the war zone
during the final months - what they call the virtually insurmountable difficulties in ascertaining
simple facts about what happened in the last few weeks and months of the conflict.
It seems that they hope that by so doing they can undermine the credibility of our journalism.
Their problem is that they dont want to admit that the reason it was difficult to get information
about what was happening in the war zone was that the government were deliberately
preventing anyone finding out what they were doing there.
For example they quote Ravi Nessman, then the Bureau Chief of Associated Press in Colombo,
as saying: This is a very difficult story to cover as a journalist. The war zone is a black hole... We
cant get up there.
But they dont quote what he went on to say a few moments later.
Were barred from going in, most aid workers are barred from going in. From what were able
to get from doctors up there who are the very few people with telephones that still work, from
some of the witnesses whove fled, some civilians whove left, is that the government appears
to be shelling in this very small area with tens of thousands of civilians, and that seems to be
causing a lot of civilian casualties. (3)

The fact is that despite the efforts of the government to keep the events in the No Fire Zones
secret, the evidence has continued to emerge ever since and we have played a significant role
in bringing that to the attention of the world, as the UNs Internal Review into its role in the Sri
Lanka crisis has acknowledged.
The broadcast of a British Channel Four film Sri Lankas Killing Fields on 3 June 2011
during the Human Rights Councils 17
th
session in Geneva in a side event within UN premises
is reported to have been particularly powerful in informing Member States of the violations
reported to have taken place.
But our findings have also been separately confirmed by the UN Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka
appointed by Ban Ki Moon:
The Panel found credible allegations associated with the final stages of the war. Between
September 2008 and 19 May 2009, the Sri Lanka Army advanced its military campaign into
the Vanni using large-scale and widespread shelling, causing large numbers of civilian deaths.
This campaign constituted persecution of the population of the Vanni. Around 330,000
civilians were trapped into an ever-decreasing area, fleeing the shelling but kept hostage by
8
the LTTE. The Government sought to intimidate and silence the media and other critics of the
war through a variety of threats and actions, including the use of white vans to abduct and to
make people disappear.
The Government shelled on a large scale in three consecutive No Fire Zones, where it
had encouraged the civilian population to concentrate, even after indicating that it would
cease the use of heavy weapons. It shelled the United Nations hub, food distribution lines and
near the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) ships that were coming to pick
up the wounded and their relatives from the beaches. It shelled in spite of its knowledge of
the impact, provided by its own intelligence systems and through notification by the United
Nations, the ICRC and others. Most civilian casualties in the final phases of the war were
caused by Government shelling.
The Government systematically shelled hospitals on the frontlines. All hospitals in the
Vanni were hit by mortars and artillery, some of them were hit repeatedly, despite the fact that
their locations were well-known to the Government. The Government also systematically
deprived people in the conflict zone of humanitarian aid, in the form of food and medical
supplies, particularly surgical supplies, adding to their suffering. To this end, it purposefully
underestimated the number of civilians who remained in the conflict zone. Tens of thousands
lost their lives from January to May 2009, many of whom died anonymously in the
carnage of the final few days.
A Question of Sources
In the introduction the authors attach significant importance to their two main sources referred
to throughout the book. One is Gordon Weiss, the former UN Spokesman and author of The
Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers. The other is a Sri Lankan
group of academic commentators, based in the Vanni, University Teachers for Human Rights.
Corrupted Journalism references Gordon Weiss at least 80 times though the quotes they use
are highly selective. Not once do the authors quote any of his devastating indictments of the
government quotes which also reinforce much of what we say. In particular they ignore what is
his overall conclusion.
I went to Sri Lanka as a supporter of that states essential right to protect its sovereign
territory, and I left with much the same view. However, I believe that the tactical choices that
the Sri Lankan Army was directed to make, and which contributed to the deaths of so many
civilians, warrant a credible judicial investigation of the kind that the Sri Lankan state, in its
current guise, is no longer capable of mounting.
They also dont mention that Weiss was eventually unceremoniously expelled from Sri Lanka by
the government because they didnt like what he was saying.
The pattern is the same with the quotes from papers by the University Teachers for Human
Rights and those associated with them who they reference over 50 times. But if the authors
of Corrupted Journalism uncritically accept what the UTHR say about the Tigers, should they
not also accept what they say about the government forces - comments which are also entirely
consistent with our films.
The State systematically marginalised and restricted the operation of international organisations,
subverting their efforts to humanise the conduct of the war and secure reduced casualties. the
Government blatantly lied about the real number of civilians trapped in the zone, and the number
killed by their disproportionate use of force in the form of intense shelling and bombing.
9
A government cannot descend to the
level of criminals even in dealing with
criminals. The Government and a country
lose their dignity and legitimacy when
they subject anyone who is defenceless
to barbarous treatment.
Defence Secretary Lt. Colonel Gotabhaya
Rajapakse Rtd. appeared to believe that
it was his right to make up rules of war as
suited his whims ..All hospitals were hit
and one would look in vain for any traces
of restraint.
What we have witnessed over the years
is an open licence to kill suspects and
well over a thousand Tamil civilians have
been killed by the present governments
killer squads. There is little left to
the imagination on what would have
happened to prisoners on the battle field.
All those whom we have talked to who
were in the final safe zone, are agreed
that places where civilians gathered and
sighted from UAVs, often for collecting
rations and handouts, were regularly
targeted for shelling.
None of these quotes are included in Corrupted Journalism.
FOOTNOTES
(1) The authors try to legally justify the use of the word corrupted in the title by the inclusion in the body of the text of
an archaic definition of the word: destroyed in purity, debased, vitiated by errors or alterations.They describe this as the
Shorter Oxford Dictionarys definition of the word. Actually it is the dictionarys fifth definition of the word. The one before
that is To induce to act dishonestly or unfaithfully; To make venal; To bribe, which is of course the normal contemporary
use of the word. Indeed the most recent web version of the Oxford Dictionarys gives as its first definition of the word:
having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.
(2) Gordon Weiss who the authors quote selectively, described these events thus: Chilling photographs show thin Tamil
men, stripped of their clothes, cowering before machete-wielding mobs of Sinhalese, or waiting with tyres around their necks
for the terrible moment when they would be set alight by their tormentors. Black July, as it is known, has become a sort of
Kristallnacht in the collective memory of Sri Lankas Tamils, a government-orchestrated pogrom that burned families out of
their homes, and drove them from their country. One direct consequence was a flood of thousands of Tamil recruits to a rag-
tag guerrilla outfit of several dozen men who called themselves the Tamil Tigers.
(3) PBS interview - transcript here: http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/02/kohona_says_its_best_for_mia_t.html
(4) Colombo Telegraph article November 24th 2013 Rajapaksa Promotes Instigator Of Channel 4 Protests To Cabinet
<https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/rajapaksa-promotes-instigator-of-channel-4-protests-to-cabinet/
10
Chapter Two
The Allegations
This chapter summarises the key accusations in the first two films, quite accurately because the
authors are actually quoting a Channel 4 press release.
The authors do not deal with these serious issues, but instead set out to discredit our key
witnesses, beginning with a paragraph that is wrong in every single important respect.
Channel 4s main witness in the first programme, presented as independent, was
subsequently revealed to have been a LTTE member during the period in question. Channel
4s first programme also carried claims made by yet another unidentified witness that a group
of women and girls were raped and then taken away, with the implication that they were then
killed: the witness, who claimed that she and her daughter were part of that group, does not
explain why they were not similarly taken away. Channel 4 also presents another unidentified
witness who claimed to have a portfolio of photographs of dead LTTE leaders taken on a senior
officers camera. He does not show them.
We start by looking at their first claim - that Vany Kumar, the young British Tamil woman whose
family emigrated to the UK from Sri Lanka to escape government orchestrated anti-Tamil
violence of 1983 is in fact an LTTE member.
The authors of Corrupted Journalism present not a single piece of concrete evidence to support
their claim. They are in fact simply repeating unsubstantiated claims made by Defence Secretary
Gotabaya Rajapaksa in an interview with an Indian current affairs programme, Headlines Today (1)
and in a Sri Lankan government propaganda film called Lies Agreed Upon.
In that same interview Gotabaya said: She (Vany) was talking about the rape. How can she talk
about the rape when she was so safely - a person, so attractive a person.. She was not raped,
she was not killed. How can she talk like that?
This logic was summed up by the Indian anchor at the end of the interview:
Gotabaya Rajapaksa there, laughing off allegations of war crimes, saying how can a pretty
woman level allegations of other women being raped.
He paraphrased Gotabayas position as: If my officers were indeed raping women, why didnt
they rape her! and concluded: That is the most absurd logic ever.
It is, however, exactly the same offensive logic that the authors of Corrupted Journalism use in
the second sentence of that remarkable opening paragraph, when they ask why the mother and
daughter who were raped were not also taken away and executed.
The witness, who claimed that she and her daughter were part of that group, does not explain
why they were not similarly taken away.
The third interviewee that Corrupted Journalism attempts to discredit is the unidentified witness
who claimed to have a portfolio of photographs of dead LTTE leaders taken on a senior officers
camera. They claim he doesnt show any of these photographs, but that is simply untrue.
Several of the photographs referred to are subsequently shown in the programme.
11
Another example, just a few lines later, is this.
The witness Channel 4 presented, Vany Kumar, claimed that the government would then use
the ICRC coordinates for hospitals to target the buildings. Kumar claimed that the doctors
present in these medical points subsequently asked the ICRC not to pass on the coordinates.
In fact the claim that doctors present in these medical points subsequently asked the ICRC not
to pass on the coordinates was not made by Vany Kumar at all. It was made by Gordon Weiss,
who was then the UNs official spokesman in Sri Lanka and the man who Corrupted Journalism
so frequently cites as a reliable witness.
Selective Quotes
A feature of Corrupted Journalism is the frequent use of quotes which when checked against
their source, turn out to have been taken out of context, or completely misrepresented. A good
example is their use of an extract from a review of our film in The Independent.
In Sri Lankas Killing Fields we reported that one of the worst aspects of the shelling was the
way one shell was so often followed some minutes later by a second shell in the same. As one
survivor explained this meant they could not go to the aid of the injured for fear of being caught
in a second attack. We added: To terrified civilians it seemed government forces were determined
to maximise casualties.
We illustrated this with distressing images of two young girls being held back inside a bunker
by a tearful woman who was trying to stop them running to aid their mother who had just been
terribly wounded by a recent shell.
The authors of Corrupted Journalism were disparaging about this claim and cited the review in
the Independent as justification:
These claims couldnt even persuade a British television reviewer, let alone any potential
court or jury. The British newspaper The Independent noted that: Nothing you saw in the first
half of the programme could conclusively prove [the GPS] charge, or confirm the belief that
the Sri Lankans would pause after one shell and then fire another to kill the rescuers.
12
But they dont quote the rest of the review. To do that would reveal that the reviewer was in fact
pointing out that it was our film which was convincing and the governments denial of culpability
which was implausible.
Here is what the next lines of the review said:
(The government of Sri Lankas) only workable strategy with the film that followed, though,
was to dismiss it as a fake, since it incontrovertibly showed Sri Lankan soldiers executing
prisoners in cold blood. It hadnt looked fake to Channel 4s technical analysts, and I dont
think it would have looked fake to any viewer outside the Sri Lankan High Commission.
These are our state property. Lets shoot, said an off-camera voice, as bound prisoners were
murdered. Is there no one here with the balls to shoot a terrorist? yelled another soldier,
impatient with his colleagues irresolution in front of three kneeling prisoners. Most horrible of
all was the ogling trophy footage of dead women stripped naked: I really want to cut her tits
off, someone muttered, if no one was around. The Sri Lankan governments only response to
these disgusting documents has been to question Channel 4s standards and fairness.
So what was in fact a ringing endorsement of our journalism, was used to suggest our claims
couldnt even persuade a British television reviewer.
An Iron Grip. The LTTE and the Civilian Demonstrations
Corrupted Journalism deals with at some length with the demonstrations by civilians outside the
UN base. The authors reasonably suggest these were mounted with the approval of the LTTE.
Certainly, as the UN worker Benjamin Dix pointed out in our film, No Fire Zone, LTTE had an iron
grip over that area.
But to imply, as Corrupted Journalism does, that the civilians were not genuinely terrified about
the prospect of the UN leaving and that these demonstrations were not genuine is wrong. As
Weiss told us: The Government regarded the UN as impediments to their conquest of the Tamil
Tigers. .They intended to remove independent witnesses to what was coming. If Weiss was
aware of that you can be sure it was terrifyingly clear to the civilians trapped in Kilinochchi.
In Frances Harrisons important book Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lankas Hidden
War, she suggests that the Tigers were also keen to keep the UN there to act as a cover for a
tactical withdrawal of some of their heavy weapons and certainly Dix remembers the sound
of heavy weapons leaving the town that night. But it is also true that the tactical withdrawal
continued long after the demos and did not conclude until the end of the year, some three
months after the UN had left. The significant issue here though, is that the demonstrators
genuine fears turned out to be tragically well-founded and for that reason the inclusion of the
footage was entirely appropriate.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Interview with Gotabaya Rajapaksa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBEqq0bGURg#t=191 php/rajapaksa-
promotes-instigator-of-channel-4-protests-to-cabinet/
13
Chapter Three
Channel 4s Witnesses
It is perhaps significant that almost half of this chapter ostensibly devoted to a further
examination of the credibility of our witnesses is actually an attack on a report broadcast by
the Australian channel ABC which has nothing to do with Channel 4 and features none of our
witnesses.
The main thrust of the remaining pages is a further attempt to discredit the testimony of Vany
Kumar. This is done for the most part not by addressing her evidence, but attempting to cast
doubt on her credibility and suggest she was a secret Tiger.
Their first charge is that she operates under a series of seemingly sinister aliases.
Channel 4s prime witness goes by at least four other names, they say, before revealing
that those four names are virtually identical. Damilvany Kumar, Damilvany Gnanakumar and
Damilvany Gananakumar are all variations on the same name in the same way that someone
named Robert Miller might also be known as Rob Miller, Robbie Miller or Bob Miller.
The spelling variations (in one case just by one letter) are even less surprising when it is
considered that the names are phonetically transcribed into the Roman alphabet from the
original Tamil text - and that it is a convention within Tamil culture to abbreviate both first and
family names.
The fourth alias they quote, Dr Tamilvani, is actually from a Youtube video posted by someone
who misspells her name and wrongly says she was a doctor. (1)
One hates to think what they make of the fact that she has now remarried and has another name.
Corrupted Journalism next points out that when Channel 4 News interviewed Vany shortly
after she got back to the UK in September 2009, they said: we are unable to vouch for the
independence of her testimony. They imply there is something sinister about the fact that we
did not make such a disclaimer when we interviewed her for Sri Lankas Killing Fields.
That is hardly surprising. The timescale of a daily news bulletin means that although her
evidence was clearly important and credible and worthy of broadcast, it was sensible to sound
that cautionary note pending further investigation. The timescale of our subsequent films
allowed us to make further checks and gather an enormous amount of corroborating evidence
which meant such a disclaimer was neither necessary nor would it have been accurate.
14
Flimsy Evidence
The next piece of evidence presented to cast doubts on Vanys credibility relates to the fact
that she calls her cousin, (whose family she stayed with in the Vanni), her brother. In fact it is
absolutely conventional in Tamil culture (and indeed in many other cultures) to call your cousin
brother. The authors also attach apparently significance to the fact that she left her family in
the UK without letting them know. Again the explanation for this that she had separated from
her husband was far from sinister. (2)
Indeed in No Fire Zone, which as a feature documentary allowed us the luxury of greater length,
Vany is able to explain in some detail the circumstances of her journey, following the failure of
her marriage.
VANY: The relationship did not last long, but, Tamil Community is very strict about separation
and divorce. Soon as I graduated, I thought I need a break; I need to go somewhere else, to
get away from the personal issues. So I decided to go to Sri Lanka to stay with my brother. Im
calling him brother but hes actually my cousin. But its just a cultural way of calling somebody.
Footnotes and Misrepresentations
Corrupted Journalism makes much play of its copious footnotes (625 in total), of which it says:
This study might be seen as drawing excessively on footnotes and references. This has been
a deliberate policy. In attempting to assess a situation as polluted by propaganda as that
of exactly what happened in the Vanni in the course of 2009, it is essential to document as
many of the sources addressing, and claiming to address, the issue as possible.
In fact as we have already noted many of the footnotes refer to articles, reviews, videos
and documents leaked by Wikileaks which when studied turn out to have been seriously
misrepresented by the anonymous authors of Corrupted Journalism. Often this involves a curious
subterfuge whereby something completely untrue is slipped in with something true. Indeed in
this very section that happens twice.
For example in the section dealing with government shelling of hospitals the authors write:
Weiss notes that the LTTE shelled their own civilians and hospitals.(CJ Footnote reference 138)
But any reader who follows footnote 138 to the cited pages of Weisss book would discover
that while Weiss did indeed say the LTTE had shelled civilians, there is no mention of the LTTE
shelling their hospitals. That is just invented.
They also say, for example, that The Guardian revealed that Kumar provided a running
commentary to the outside world from behind the lines.
135
This is presented as evidence in support of their claim that Vany was coordinating LTTE foreign
media and propaganda work.
But in fact the Guardian piece referenced in footnote 135 actually says: Gnanakumar was one
of a small group of medics treating the wounded and providing a running commentary to the
outside world from behind the lines.
It is undisputed (and explicitly acknowledged by Corrupted Journalism), that that Vany was only
working in the hospital for the last three weeks or four weeks. Up until then she had told us she
had been hiding in bunkers like almost everyone else.
15
The running commentary was provided and had been provided for weeks by the doctors
who were quoted by foreign media on a regular basis. Vany features in only one interview from
the war zone - a telephone conversation with the Guardian on the hospital doctors Sat phone
hardly the work of an LTTE propagandist. And what makes the whole propagandist claim even
more absurd is what she said in that conversation:
The government or the LTTE, they have got to do something, and if not, I cant imagine
what will happen next. Both parties have got to have a ceasefire. I think the international
[community] has to either come into the country or get both parties to stop the fighting and
start thinking about the civilians living here. Every single person living here asks why the
international [community] is not doing anything.
I really want to come to the UK but I dont know. Im talking to you now, but maybe tomorrow
Ill be dead.
So in her one interview with a foreign newspaper this blatant apologist for terror and murder,
this trained fighter and LTTE propagandist appealed to both the government and the LTTE to
stop the fighting and start thinking about the civilians living here.
The fact is that Corrupted Journalisms attempted character assassination of this young woman
is demonstrably untenable. The evidence they cite in their footnote actually proves no such
thing. Perhaps even more tellingly, when they make specific claims such as that relating to
Vanys alleged training as an LTTE fighter the ubiquitous footnotes providing sources are
suddenly glaringly absent.
Instead they resort to attempt to smear by association naming some senior members of an
international political and cultural Tamil youth group with branches in 12 countries, known as
the Tamil Youth Organisation, who were charged under terrorism legislation. There is no reference
or evidence offered that Vany even knew these individuals.
Anaesthetics
It is significant that in a chapter attacking
Vanys credibility very little reference is
actually made to her testimony. The one
issue they do take up is her description
of the desperate medical shortages she
observed during her time volunteering in
the makeshift hospital in the last three
weeks of the war.
These shortages have been corroborated
by several sources including the UN. In
our films the most senior of the doctors
in the NFZ, Dr Thurairajah Varatharajah,
testifies in video footage from the No
Fire Zone about the governments refusal
to supply adequate medicine.
16
The hospital administrator also describes the desperate shortage of blood and antibiotics
explaining that these are: just some of the reasons that in this situation we find that death has
become normal - and in big numbers. Just a few days after that interview is recorded he too is
killed in a government shell attack on the hospital. He had continued to work at every stage and
in every temporary hospital since they were first evacuated from Kilinochchi.
In the last few weeks of the war anaesthetics ran desperately short. There is ample evidence
including photographic evidence or operations performed without general anaesthetics Vany
explained this in more detail in No Fire Zone when she described one operation thus:
This seven year old boy came inside and his left leg was just hanging and arm as well just
hanging into pieces. One side, the left side of him, was just completely damaged and we
were thinking: What are we going to do? What is there for us to do here? There is no general
anaesthetic at this point and local anaesthetic was very limited.
As a result even local anaesthetics were diluted and used when out of date. These would have
been virtually useless in a situation like this.
Dr Varatharajah has confirmed the desperate shortages in an interview he recently gave to an
Indian TV station in which he explained that while they had some local anaesthetics they could
have saved thousands more with proper medicines and general anaesthetics.
17
In addition we have in our possession extremely distressing video images too awful to include
in the film - of two young children who were brought into the temporary hospital with limbs
blown off. They are conscious and screaming and there is no indication that anyone is able to
give them the general anaesthetic they urgently need.
Vany has seen this footage and confirmed that these are in fact different incidents to the one she
witnessed, demonstrating that what she described was no isolated incident.
But despite this welter of evidence Corrupted Journalism claims that Vanys testimony is not true.
To justify this claim they rely on the testimony of just one of the doctors, Veerakathipillai
Shanmugarajah, who was among the five brave doctors from the war zone who were taken
captive at the end of the war, held for several months by the Sri Lankan Governments Criminal
Investigation Department, and threatened with years in jail if they did not retract everything they
had said from the war zone.
We will deal with those events in more detail in the next chapter, but it is worth pointing out that
Dr Shanmugarajah is alone in his current description of events. Other doctors now safely out of
the country tell a different story and one which is consistent with what they all (including Dr
Shanmugarajah) described when they were trapped inside the no fire zone.
Indeed the most senior of the doctors in the NFZ, Dr Thurairajah Varatharajah, who is now resident
outside Sri Lanka , has confirmed in an interview with an Indian TV station that what he said from
the war zone was accurate and that he was forced to lie by the government when he came out.
This chapter of Corrupted Journalism ends: The credibility of Ms Vany
Kumar in any British court of law on so many levels would be laid bare in a
matter of minutes.
That is, we submit, rather the reverse of what might happen. It is the
credibility of the unfounded, incomplete and misleading claims in
Corrupted Journalism which would actually survive no longer than a few
seconds under the scrutiny of a British court.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Interview with Dr. Tamilvani: Eye witness to Bloodbath on Mullivaikal Beach 1 of 3, YouTube, uploaded by
lovetamileelam, 29 August 2011, available at <http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=pf84ClLeFRc>.
(2) This is confirmed by a Guardian interview which Corrupted Journalism actually refers to in another context, which
records: She had just completed a biomedical degree at Greenwich University, but her short-lived marriage was on the rocks
and she decided it was time to make a clean break. She left the house, telling no one where she was going
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/15/sri-lanka-war-on-tamil-tigers
18
Chapter Four
The Doctors
The way the brave Tamil government doctors who remained in the war zone were treated in
the aftermath of the war remains one of the most shameful episodes in the governments
international propaganda war. The apparent willingness of the anonymous authors of Corrupted
Journalism to endorse that behaviour should be a source of serious concern.
The inaccuracy begins from the very start when Corrupted Journalism says that five doctors
were present throughout naming the five who were later held in captivity by the Criminal
Investigation Department and paraded at the Ministry of Defence organized press conference
where they were forced to recant.
In fact there were at least six doctors who were there throughout of which four were at the
press conference. According to the University Teachers for Human Rights the source so often
selectively quoted by Corrupted Journalism - one of the five paraded in the MOD offices in
Colombo was actually an LTTE doctor.
Altogether there were actually five arrested doctors, though the other two, Sivapalan and
Illancheliyan, had hardly spoken to the media from the Vanni. Yet placing the former, who
worked for an LTTE-run facility, alongside the government doctors who spoke to the media
pre-judged the government doctors as LTTE mouthpieces.
After several hundred words describing the undisputed ruthless control the LTTE exerted over any
dissension, Corrupted Journalism goes on to say that it goes without saying that there was an
LTTE intelligence unit supervising the doctors and adds The LTTE also placed Vany Kumar and
others to monitor them.
In reality the claim that Vany had this role is particularly implausible. She it was, after all, who
had publicly called on the LTTE and the government to stop the fighting and start thinking about
the civilians!
More Selective Quotes
This section also quotes Rajan Hoole of University Teachers for Human Rights saying The
possibility that the doctors could have been under LTTE pressure to lie was perhaps to be
expected. but typically fails to include the rest of his quote. Here it is in full.
The possibility that the doctors could have been under LTTE pressure to lie was perhaps to
be expected, though there is no evidence that they did lie while on duty. At the same time, the
government coercing these individuals into being tools for its ends, holding them to public
ridicule, has made them victims deserving of everyones sympathy. (1)
In the same article Hoole wrote: in general, what the doctors said about the conditions faced
by civilians has been well corroborated.
Of course Corrupted Journalism airbrushes those quotes from history because they directly
contradict everything they are trying to contend in the rest of the chapter.
19
The Sham Press Conference
The chapters key evidence begins with this sentence:
On 8 July 2012, following the LTTEs defeat, the five Tamil doctors held a press conference in
Colombo.
This is an extraordinary rewriting of history. For a start the date of the press conference is wrong
by a full three years but more importantly the press conference was not by any stretch of the
imagination held by the doctors.
The doctors had been imprisoned by the Criminal Investigation Department for weeks and
threatened - as we now know from Dr Varatharajah - by years in jail if they did not comply. The
conference was organized and staged by the Ministry of Defence.
Since Corrupted Journalism is happy to rely on selective quotes from the article by UTHRs Rajan
Hoole mentioned above which was published in Himal one month after the press conference it
would perhaps be appropriate to go to that article for a description of the press conference itself.
The doctors came out of the LTTE zone on
15 May, with the first group of civilians to
leave the area, when a round of third-party
negotiations had purportedly reached an
understanding on the LTTEs surrender. The
doctors were promptly arrested, though
there appears to be no real evidence of
criminal misconduct. After about 54 days of
detention, the doctors were produced before
the press on 8 July, rehearsed and looking
healthy not in court but rather at the
Defence Ministry.
They were accompanied not by lawyers but by ministry handlers, one of whom seemed to
reprimand one of the doctors for stating that he was a prisoner, pointing out that he was
looking quite well.
At the Defence Ministry event, the doctors explained that the LTTE had forced them to lie
about casualties, and that only around 750 civilians had actually been killed. This was in
stark contrast to the 7,000 or more given unofficially by the UN and the 10,000 estimated
by the diplomatic community. Dr Varatharajah also said that only 600 to 650 civilians had
been injured from January to 15 April. During that same period, however, the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reports having transported, by sea, nearly 5000 injured.
In fact even these estimates have had to be significantly revised upwards as more information
has emerged though still no accurate figures are available. Ban Ki Moons UN Panel of Experts
has suggested the death toll could be as high as 40,000, while the UNs internal review noted
that some evidence suggested it could be 70,000 or even higher. The fact that no corroborated
or fully evidenced figure has been produced four years after the war, is itself an indictment of the
government, though even the government whose officials forced the doctors to say that only
about 750 civilians had been killed - now concedes that as many as 7000 died.
20
So the only thing we know for certain is that this government whose reputation Corrupted
Journalism is so keen to defend has lied consistently about the number who died. It is worth
remembering that on the day before the official end of the war, the 17
th
of May 2009, Mahinda
Samarasinghe the then Sri Lankan Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, told
the worlds media: Soldiers saved all the Tamil civilians trapped inside the war zone without
shedding a drop of blood. (2)
But for another independent description of what happened at the controversial MOD press
conference with the imprisoned doctors we can turn to someone who was there Associated
Presss Bureau Chief in Colombo, Ravi Nessman. This is from his report. (3)
No government officials were at the news conference at the Defence Ministrys press centre to
answer questions about why the doctors were being detained, how much longer they would be
held, whether they were pressured to recant and whether they would be charged with any crime.
The moderator introduced himself as a freelance journalist and two men in white shirts and ties
sitting off to the side appeared to be giving him directions. When one of the doctors acknowledged
he was currently imprisoned, a journalist for the state media berated him, saying he was well fed,
clean shaven, wearing a tie and had a decent haircut, so he couldnt be a prisoner .
Later Nessman, talking to then UN spokesman Gordon Weiss, who quoted him in his book, The
Cage, said:
There was no credibility to their testimony. They looked scared, nervous and rehearsed.
They were taking directions from two guys in white shirts who sat off stage. It made me sick
to watch, knowing what they had been through already.
Afterwards, as we noted in No Fire Zone.
They were taken back into captivity. We now know they were threatened with years in jail if
they did not comply. They have now been released, but still cannot speak out.
Dr Shanmugarajah
In the period that followed only Dr Shanmugarajah seemed to maintain his public pro-
government position, for a time at least even standing in 2010 for a pro-government Tamil
party the rump of a former armed group, EROS. It is reported that he gained less than 100
votes from the Tamil electorate.
However even he according to the BBC now says he no longer wishes to discuss casualty
figures.
There are two other issues raised in the chapter which are worth commenting on. The first is a
statement:
The University Teachers for Human Rights also revealed that Dr Shanmugarajah had tried to
escape from the conflict zone, was apprehended by the LTTE, beaten and taken back to the no-
fire zone.
21
In fact this is based on the same article by Rajan Hoole of the UTHR which was published back
in 2009 while Shanmugarajah was still in captivity and therefore could not be contacted for
verification. The article, which makes it clear that the information comes second-hand, says;
Dr Shanmugarajah told a friend that he was captured while attempting to flee, beaten and then
watched by an armed LTTE guard as he carried out his duties.
Published in good faith at the time by Hoole, the story has not been subsequently corroborated.
Certainly Shanmugarajah makes no mention of it as you might expect him to do in his
affidavit produced for the government and reproduced uncritically in the back of Corrupted
Journalism.
Another Propaganda Ploy
The other issue raised in this chapter is a series of allegations about forged papers allegedly
published and falsely attributed to the doctors. The key incident they describe was in January
2009 - early in the final offensive - when APs Ravi Nessman published an article based on an
appeal which appeared to come from Dr Thurairajah Varatharajah, the most senior doctor in the war
zone. The letter claimed that 300 people had been killed and 1000 injured in heavy shelling and
fighting in Suthanthirapurum within the newly declared No Fire Zone and desperately appealed to
the government and aid groups for medicine and blood transfusions for those injured.
But according to Corrupted Journalism Varatharajah subsequently denied that the latter came
from him, allegedly saying it was done by destructive elements with sinister motives who want
to embarrass the government, people who Corrupted Journalism identify as LTTE propaganda
teams. As a result AP withdrew the story.
There is of course a logical problem here for the authors of Corrupted Journalism. Because if this
version of events is true then Dr Varatharajah is completely free to speak out from in the No Fire
Zone and denounce the LTTE as destructive elements with sinister motives. But read on and
you will find that Corrupted Journalism reports with equal conviction that the doctors were so
scared of the LTTE they had to say exactly what the LTTE told them to say in particular about
how many died.
However an examination of Corrupted Journalisms source for this particular tale as identified
in their footnotes - provides a more plausible explanation. Dr Varatharajahs apparent denial of
responsibility for the letter turns out not to have come directly from him at all. Instead the source
is an article in the Sri Lankan MOD website which quotes an un-named Sri Lanka government
Health Ministry official who in turn claims that Dr Varatharajah had phoned him to say that he
did not issue the letter. It was this government official who claimed that Varatharajah had said
the letter was: done by destructive elements with sinister motives who want to embarrass the
government. (4)
So what is the truth? All we do know for certain is that the description of constant shelling of the
No Fire Zone at Suthanthirapurum at that period resulting in very large numbers of deaths and
injuries has been vividly and independently described and corroborated by a Peter McKay a
UN official who was trapped in that very area after arriving on the last overland food convoy. His
testimony is backed by evidence and photographs. (5) Whoever wrote that appeal its contents
appear to have been completely accurate.
22
FOOTNOTES
(1) Doctoring the evidence by Rajan Hooole published in Himal inAugust2009 http://www.himalmag.com/component/
content/article/604-doctoring-the-evidence.html
(2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20322098
(3)AP wire report http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090708/as-sri-lanka-civil-war/
(4) Associated Press kills story about civilians deaths after realizing they were subjected to a hoax http://www.defence.lk/
new.asp?fname=20090129_01
(5) Mckays devastating testimony and photographs are featured in some detail in No Fire Zone and also helped inform
the UNs own subsequent examinations of the events at the end of the war
23
Chapter Five
The No-Fire Zones in the Vanni
This chapter appears to be based on the premise that the undoubted crimes of the Tamil Tigers
can be held somehow to justify the crimes of the government.
The man who was British Foreign Minister at the time, David Miliband put it this way in our film
War Crimes Unpunished:
The fact that the LTTE were using civilians as human shields - which in some cases they were,
which is itself a war crime - doesnt justify the shelling of those sites and those individuals.
Democratic governments are held to higher standards than terrorist organisations and they
needed to be adhered to.
The authors of Corrupted Journalism simply ignore most of the devastating evidence that
government forces deliberately targeted civilians. They completely ignore, for example, the
fact that five days after the government of Sri Lanka had assured the international diplomatic
community that they would not forcibly invade the No Fire Zone they had themselves declared
around Puttamattalan they did exactly that: splitting the No Fire Zone in half at its most
densely populated area, massacring at least several hundred civilians and destroying a
makeshift hospital.
Instead once again they simply hide behind the crimes of the Tigers - crimes which are not in
dispute, but cannot by any stretch of the imagination be used to justify the wholesale massacre
of tens of thousands of civilians by government forces.
A good example of that is the incident which they do devote some space to but again they
entirely misrepresent: the shelling which followed the declaration of the first no fire zone.
The Testimony of Peter McKay
The credible and independent witness we have to the circumstances and reality on the ground in
the first No Fire Zone is Peter McKay, the UN worker who became trapped in the no fire zone with
Convoy 11 - the last UN food convoy into the war zone.
It is worth remembering that part of the reason Mckay was delayed in the war zone and became
trapped by the shelling was that he had been trying unsuccessfully to evacuate his Tamil UN
staffers and their families. The LTTE had refused to let them go - and when Mckay tried to smuggle
24
them out in returning empty vehicles in the convoy, the LTTE discovered them after a search.
When that happened Mckay refused to leave without them. It is abundantly clear that Mckay is
no apologist for the Tigers the very reverse in fact, and his testimony can be relied upon to be
truly independent. His testimony is also corroborated by photographs, video evidence and can
be verified by the people he spoke to during the incident. Yet Corrupted Journalism chooses to
ignore his evidence as described in our film War Crimes Unpunished and presented personally
by him in No Fire Zone.
Instead they present their own version of
events, riddled with factual inaccuracies,
ignoring evidence of war crimes by
the government and padded out with
descriptions of Tiger crimes which are not
in dispute.
It may be worth noting at this point that
perhaps unsurprisingly the authors of
Corrupted Journalism actually ignore what
many independent observers of the last
few weeks of the war have come to regard
as the most serious offence committed
by the Tigers: a deliberate policy which
contributed to the death of many, many
civilians.
This was that they made two fatal assumptions. First they assumed that the government of Sri
Lanka would probably not be ruthless enough to systematically shell and massacre civilians on
the scale they did. And secondly they believed that if that did happen, then the international
community would intervene. They were catastrophically wrong on both counts.
The vast majority of Tamil civilians in the North East particularly in the first few weeks of 2009
- still believed that the Tigers represented their best defence against the indiscriminate violence
of the Sri Lankan armed forces. They may not have much liked them in many ways by then, but
they trusted them. The LTTE betrayed that trust.
By initially persuading and then forcing civilians at gunpoint - not to leave the killing fields of
the governments grotesquely mis-named no fire zones, the LTTE were complicit in creating the
circumstances which allowed government forces to massacre them on the scale they did.
However Corrupted Journalism with its refusal to acknowledge any fault on the part of the
government could not afford to entertain that version of events.
25
Mistakes
Perhaps because of that, even their most basic attempt to describe the chronology is inaccurate.
Sometimes the mistakes are just silly and sloppy for example when they talk about shelling
near the town of PTK then add:
With regard to the UN convoys previous location close to Udayarkattu, the International Crisis
Group also noted that from 17 January onwards: Over the next few days incoming and outgoing
mortar and artillery fire intensified. The LTTE were launching shells from close to PTK into
government-held territory, and incoming shells from the security forces were striking in PTK.
This is just factually wrong. The convoy did not go near Udayarkattu (in the no fire zone) until
several days later. The ICG is describing shelling by the LTTE in the town of PTK which was not
inside the No Fire Zone.
But even the key section contains a factual mistake quoted uncritically from an MOD source.
From the beginning in January 2009, the LTTE moved its cadres and weapons into areas that
had been declared No Fire Zones
In fact the NFZ was not declared until 20
th
January. What happened from the beginning of
January is that the SLA pursued the LTTE preceded by several hundred thousand fleeing
civilians eastward from Kilinochchi along the A35 in the direction of PTK, where the LTTE also
had significant forces and were also being threatened from the south and east.
What then happened was that the No Fire Zone was declared and the civilians encouraged
to gather precisely in the area that was the focus of the heaviest fighting and where large
numbers of LTTE forces were gathered facing the SLA forces to the south, west and east. Of
course Corrupted Journalism does not raise any questions about why the government chose this
location.
Among those who gathered in this No Fire Zone was the UN convoy leader, Peter Mckay. This is
what he said about the location in our film.
Theres a crucial point to be made about why the Sri Lanka government declared the no fire
zone within the effective range of all of the weaponry being used by the Sri Lankan military to
fire in that direction.
There is only one intent and that is because you dont really care whether or not youre going
to kill the people that are located in that safe zone or more importantly you are actively
targeting them.
INTERVIEWER: Do you believe that is what was happening?
MCKAY: Yes.
Mckay then emphatically repeated that verdict: Yes!
26
There is no doubt that the Tigers made no effort to remove their artillery from the No Fire Zone
which had been unilaterally declared by the government. There is no doubt that they continued
to fire that artillery from within the zone which was now packed with civilians and that this
too was used as an excuse by the SLA to return fire. That is not in dispute and it is misleading
of Corrupted Journalism to suggest otherwise. But it is even more misleading of Corrupted
Journalism to ignore the evidence of government culpability: the evidence that the targeting of
civilians was deliberate.
Command Responsibility
In particular the authors of Corrupted Journalism ignore the centrally important evidence
presented in both No Fire Zone and even more explicitly in the second of our TV documentaries,
War Crimes Unpunished, suggesting direct command responsibility at the highest level of the Sri
Lankan armed forces command. Evidence that senior commanders had knowledge of or ordered
the shelling of a No Fire Zone packed with innocent civilians.
In No Fire Zone we explain that when Mckays convoy arrived in the no Fire Zone they spoke to
the LTTE police and notified both the UN headquarters and the government forces of their GPS
co-ordinates. McKay explains what happened next:
We communicated those co-ordinates to the Sri Lankan Forces that this was the area that the
UN had set up their operations in and could they refrain from targeting this particular area.
Three or four hours later in the evening we sustained a barrage of mortar attack coming from
the South across the forward defensive line into the no fire zone and into the food distribution
centre. After the first few shells that landed I went outside the bunkers in order to try and get
a, establish, a communications link with the satellite in order to call Colombo to ask, request
that, the Sri Lankan military redirect its fire away from us because these, these, ordnance were
landing precariously close to our position, you know, within five to ten metres of where we
were camped. As I was outside trying to make the communications I was kind of crouched
between some of the forty-four gallon drums and sandbags and the body of a young woman
landed on top of me. As some of the shells came in the explosive force had thrown her and
landed kind of on, on, me.
She had been decapitated and most of her torso and her legs had been, er, torn apart by,
obviously, a fair amount of shrapnel that had gone through her when the shell struck.
It was dark, it was frightening, there was shells incoming all over the place, and there was a
lot of screaming and a lot of chaos. I kind of pushed the body off me and continued to try to
establish the link. And I kind of had a sense that I was just waiting to die. That this, my luck
was going to run out, soon.
Mckay did eventually establish contact and what happened next represents vital evidence
is establishing responsibility for the shelling. This is how we described the next events in War
Crimes Unpunished.
Government spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara denied government responsibility
blaming Tigers who sometimes did have units adjacent to the civilians. But a confidential
internal UN report records that their staff in the field were in no doubt where the shelling
came from: The probability of shellfire originating from Government of Sri Lanka forces is
considered 100%.
27
We also revealed that there was further evidence to confirm that.
As the shells rained down on Uddiyakattu, UN workers made frantic calls from the no fire
zone to the Australian High Commissioner and UN officials in Colombo asking for the shelling
to stop. The UN workers were told these requests were passed on directly both to Army
Commander Sareth Fonseka and Defence Minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa
Shortly after these calls the shelling shifted slightly away from the UN bunkers, but it continued
to rain down on the no fire zone. In a sworn statement dealing with the incident Peter Mackay,
described how the shelling was re-targeted.
Now the closest shells landed 100 metres from us, indicating that they could control the fire
when they wanted to.
This was of particular significance, because it suggested that the Defence Minister and Army
commander had now at least direct knowledge of the shelling of the no fire zone. It was ordered
away from the actual UN bunkers, but there was no end to the shelling of the no fire zone. It also
suggests the attacks killing civilians were accurately targeted.
Ignoring the Evidence
Corrupted Journalism simply ignores all this evidence, returning instead to its safer theme of
the LTTEs failure to move their weapons out of the No Fire Zone before using them. The authors
quotes University Teachers for Human Rights describing how this encouraged return fire into the
no fire zone.
The UTHR documents that witnesses noted that the LTTE was shelling from among the
civilians at advancing troops and that this provoked a response from the army, resulting in
civilian deaths.
But when UTHR turn their attention to the nature of the governments return fire they are less
keen to quote them.
In almost all instances not involving direct combat, the Armys return fire was directed at
civilian presences, something it would have known from UAV information. Modern detection
systems for hostile artillery have a circular probable error of about 0.45% of 18 range. This
roughly means that detection of hostile fire 6 miles (10 km) away could be measured to
a working accuracy of 50 yards (45 m). This is again a probabilistic measure, inadequate
for firing at enemy positions among civilian concentrations. LTTE had its large artillery guns
usually in isolated places. Civilians on their own kept well clear of LTTE mortar positions.
Witnesses report the LTTE firing mortars from among them, but they were usually out of
sight or at a distance outside the error in detection systems. In general they were far enough
to avoid danger to civilians, if civilian safety had been one of the Governments aims. The
Government had the technology to avoid hitting civilians; the fact that it did so almost daily
points to a deliberate intention. Several witnesses consulted by us confirm that one shell
from the LTTE or even its firing small arms into the air brought indiscriminate return shelling
multiplied scores of times.
Despite the Army shelling Suthanthirapuram generously, the LTTEs nearest artillery position
was in a patch of jungle north of Thevipuram, about a mile east of the places shelled.
It should not be forgotten that these observations come from an organisation uncompromising
in its criticisms of the Tigers.
28
The Hospitals
The final substantive issue in this chapter concerns the shell attacks on hospitals where again
the authors simply focus on the uncontested behaviour of the rebel LTTE which at best showed a
cavalier disregard for the safety of hospitals. Once again they ignore the flouting of international
laws of war by government forces.
They quote the UTHR:
A senior educator familiar with the [PTK] hospital told us that the LTTE largely disregarded
the ICRCs request not to drive or park its vehicles in front of the Hospital, as these could be
spotted by UAVs leading to shell attacks.

University Teachers for Human Rights reported
further that [t]he ICRC had in fact asked the LTTE not bring their vehicles and weapons near
PTK Hospital, but to no avail. Some of the hospital ambulances had also been taken over by
the LTTE, whose leaders were using them to move around.
Although none of this amounts to a suggestion that the LTTE were actually firing from within the
hospital, the suggestion that they used ambulances for military purposes is, if true, very serious.
But having made that point, Corrupted Journalism then pointedly ignores the UTHR when they
also highlight the governments consistent flouting of their obligations under international law.
Apart from temporary medical centres being hit, the Ponnambalam Memorial Hospital was
bombed on 6th February 2009 and Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) hospital was hit thrice by
government artillery fire on 1st February, killing nine civilians on the spot. There was no LTTE fire
from inside the hospital. But even if in the extreme case that the LTTE had turned the hospital
into a fortress, Article 14 of the Geneva Conventions indicates what a civilized party should do
prior to firing:
The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used
to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy. Protection may,
however, cease only after due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a
reasonable time limit and after such warning has remained unheeded.
Here too we see an absence of rules of engagement issued by the Defence Ministry. The
civilians were given no warning, nor were any alternative locations named for them, before the
Government shelled hospitals and safe zones it had designated, without respite.
29
In a Sky interview the government Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa appeared to admit
the government was breaking the law when he specifically justified shelling PTK hospital not
on the grounds that it was being used by the LTTE but simply on the grounds that it existed
outside the government-declared No Fire Zone.
Heres how Sky reported it and some quotes from the interview with Gotabaya. (1)
SKY REPORTER: The aid agencies say a hospital packed with wounded has been repeatedly
shelled, killing some patients and injuring many more. The defence Secretary has told us that
right now everything is a legitimate target if its not inside the safe zone the government has
created. And the only hospital (in the area) is outside that zone.
GOTABAYA RAJAPAKSA: Nothing should exist beyond the No Fire Zone.
INTERVIEWEE: So just to be clear if this hospital is operating outside the No Fire Zone its
a legitimate target?
GOTABAYA RAJAPAKSA:yes.
FOOTNOTES
(1) A copy of the report - first broadcast on Sky can be seen on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmM2qg95R0
30
Chapter Six
The Sri Lankan Army and Civilians
At the heart of this chapter is an attempt to suggest that it was through no fault of the
government that between 300,000 and 400,000 civilians ended up trapped in the No Fire Zones
which were to become the focus of government shelling.
This is difficult, given that the authors themselves make it clear in chapter 5 that the Government
of Sri Lanka deliberately encouraged the civilians to gather in these unilaterally declared No Fire
Zones.
In a clear attempt to minimise civilian casualties, the government declared several no-fire
zones. The Government of Sri Lanka declared the first demilitarised, no-fire zone (NFZ 1)
in January 2009.

This zone was a 22 square-mile safe area for civilians north of the A35 road
between Udayarkattu junction and the Manjal Palam (Yellow Bridge) in Mullaitivu district.
This declaration was communicated to citizens in the region through leaflet drops by the Sri
Lankan air force and through notification to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Having established that it was indeed the government that encouraged civilians to gather in the
NFZs, the authors have a problem by chapter 6 when dealing with our evidence that these zones
were then targeted by shelling and civilians started dying.
As a result they tie themselves in logical knots, attempting now to suggest that actually it was
the Tigers who were responsible for their presence there.
There is no doubt, however, that government artillery, mortar and small arms fire killed and
injured civilians in the no-fire zones. The government admitted this, and circumstances within
the conflict zone, most notably the enforced presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians,
made civilian casualties inevitable. Rather than exploring this objectively, or even admit that
the civilians were present because they had been forced to accompany the LTTE, Channel
4 chose instead to make a number of claims about the Sri Lankan armed forces and their
interaction with the civilian population in north-east Sri Lanka, accusing them of displacing
civilians and then deliberately targeting them. (Our emphasis).
There is no doubt that once in the No Fire Zone the LTTE is guilty of preventing those civilians who
wanted to leave from doing so. But the authors of Corrupted Journalism cannot claim the government
had no responsibility for their being there in the first place indeed they encouraged that.
As for responsibility for the original exodus that preceded the announcement of the No Fire
Zones the reality of course was complex best described by Corrupted Journalisms frequently
cited source - University Teachers for Human Rights. (1)
Every familys modest desire is to stay with their plot of land, sow, reap and raise their family.
Displacement of people should be contemplated only under dire circumstances. The people would
not have followed the LTTEs retreat without the cannons of the advancing Army pounding
remorselessly.
31
Erratic Figures
Next the authors of Corrupted Journalism claim that our figures on the numbers of civilians
trapped in the war zone are surprisingly erratic.
This is their evidence:
Jon Snow first claims that between 300,000- 400,000 civilians were involved. He then
states that By the end of January 2009, the remaining Tamil Tigers and as many as 400,000
civilians were now trapped by Sri Lankan government forces.
The claim that these two figures are erratic is somewhat bizarre - especially given the paucity
of accurate information from the war zone. In fact between 300,000- 400,000 is perfectly
consistent with as many as 400,000.
Our figures are a lot more precise and accurate than the figures from the government. Even
Corrupted Journalism admits this in this very chapter.
the government initially thought there were fewer civilians in the area than was the case: it
(now) accepts that about 300,000 civilians were being held by the LTTE.
Corrupted Journalism does not point out why the government said there were fewer - but the UN
Panel of Experts appointed by Ban Ki Moon, which investigated this very issue, was very clear.
32
The Government also systematically deprived people in the conflict zone of humanitarian
aid, in the form of food and medical supplies, particularly surgical supplies, adding to their
suffering. To this end, it purposefully underestimated the number of civilians who
remained in the conflict zone. Tens of thousands lost their lives from January to May 2009,
many of whom died anonymously in the carnage of the final few days. (our emphasis)
But for a particularly stark example of erratic figures you need look no further than the Sri
Lankan governments figures on the dead.
As the authors of Corrupted Journalism report in this very chapter, the government claimed from
early on to have a policy of zero civilian casualties.
Then at the end of April 2009, while the killing was approaching its height and just days after
the massacres at Puttamattalen in the No Fire Zone (when it was split in half by government
shelling at a cost of very many hundreds of lives), the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Bogollagama
told diplomats that:
..not a single civilian casualty had been caused by GSL military forces. (our emphasis) (2)
On what is now officially recognized as the second last day of the war, Mahinda Samarasinghe
the then Sri Lankan Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, told the worlds media:
Soldiers saved all the Tamil civilians trapped inside the war zone without shedding a drop of
blood.
A few weeks later, when the imprisoned doctors were being paraded at the MODs stage-
managed press conference the figure they were told to give by their government handlers had
gone up to around 750. Then, by 2013, the government had revised the figure again this time
to around 7000.
33
For the government supporters who wrote Corrupted Journalism to accuse us of erratic figures
is somewhat ironic.
Again it is probably worth giving the last word on the governments figures to the organization
upon which Corrupted Journalism appears to place so much reliance, the UTHR. (3)
There was no consistency or any genuine information behind the Governments figures.
These were just pulled out of the hat, and on the basis of these food and medicines to the
IDPs were curtailed to ridiculously low quantities, irregularly delivered, causing starvation and extreme
hardship. It did not treat the Tamils as citizens of this country. In a more sinister vein, by deliberately
understating the IDP numbers the Government was preparing for the eventuality where it could
dismiss any later suggestion of high civilian casualties by pointing out that, according to its
statistics, the dead persons never existed. It was as though they had been disappeared on paper
in preparation for their extinction by cannon fire.
FOOTNOTES
(1) University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna)* Sri Lanka Uthr(J) Special Report No: 34
Date of release: 13
th
December 200
(2) https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09COLOMBO456_a.html
(3) UTHR Special report 34 page 110
34
Chapter Seven
How many people died in the Vanni?
The chapter opens with Corrupted Journalisms favoured device of a few quotes with the clear
implication that they somehow expose or contradict our thesis. These are two of those quotes.
Who knows how many people died? We dont know and it would be foolish for anyone to say
that they know. But we do know what we dont know. Gordon Weiss
Two years after the end of the war, there is still no reliable figure for civilian death. The UN
Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka
If the authors think these quotes suggest we are way off the mark in our discussions of the final
death toll they rather miss the point. In fact they exactly reflect our own comments.
No-one knows exactly how many died in this desecrated landscape War Crimes
Unpunished
No-one knows how many died over the next few days. Sri Lankas Killing Fields
No-one knows how many civilians died in the last few months of the war. No Fire Zone
In fact it becomes clear that
what the authors of Corrupted
Journalism are actually trying
to do is suggest that any
attempt investigate or get to
the truth is foolish or wrong.
Rather than encouraging a
serious attempt to get to the
truth they appear determined
to muddy the waters, quoting,
for example from a report from
Human Rights Watch which
says:
despite the wide use of artillery
and airpower during the recent
offensive, there have been no
credible reports of individual
attacks causing high civilian
casualties...
In fact that report dates from 2008 well before the massacres which began after the
declaration of the first No Fire Zone on Jan 20
th
2009.
It is certainly true that no-one knows how many died - itself an indictment of the government
whose citizens they were. But that should not preclude us from reporting as we do on some of
the possible estimates made by reputable bodies such as Ban Ki Moons Panel of Experts or the
UNs internal review panel.
35
This is what we said in No Fire Zone
No-one knows how many civilians died in the last few months of the war. The UN panel
of experts suggested it could be as many as 40,000. A more recent UN Internal Review
suggested the figure could be 70,000 or even higher.
Corrupted Journalisms authors suggest, somewhat bizarrely, that this reporting of the 40,000
estimate puts us in breach of our obligations under UK broadcasting regulations.:
The 40,000 figure is very controversial. In addressing such a serious and obviously
controversial allegation, Channel 4 ignored the requirement laid down in the British
Broadcasting Codes (sic) that In dealing with matters of major political...controversy...an
appropriately wide range of significant views must be included.
Specifically they say: The broadcaster and programme makers ignored a range of mortality
figures that were contemporaneous.
That is simply untrue. As we have demonstrated we frequently drew attention to the
governments claims that: not a single civilian casualty had been caused by GSL military forces,
or that all of the civilians who were inside the no fire zone have now been rescued.
There is nothing we can do about the fact that those contemporaneous figures are implausible.
FOOTNOTES
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/12/22/besieged-displaced-and-detained
36
Chapter Eight
Humanitarian access to the Vanni
The central theme of this chapter is that any suggestion that the government limited supplies of
food and humanitarian aid to the No Fire Zones is false.
Much of the evidence demonstrating that the government did indeed deny humanitarian aid to
the civilians trapped in the zone has already been covered. This included the deliberate under-
estimation of the numbers trapped, which was so clearly identified by the UN Panel of Experts
who concluded: The Government systematically deprived people in the conflict zone of
humanitarian aid, in the form of food and medical supplies, particularly surgical supplies, adding
to their suffering
Similarly the UTHR said: On the basis of these (govt figures) food and medicines to the IDPs
were curtailed to ridiculously low quantities, irregularly delivered, causing starvation and extreme
hardship.
But there is plenty of other evidence of the deliberate underestimation of the numbers of civilians
in the No Fire Zone including evidence which appears in our films, but which the authors of
Corrupted Journalism ignore.
On April the 28th President Rajapaksa when challenged on suggestions that humanitarian aid
was being denied to the NFZ - personally endorsed the claim that there were only a few thousand
civilians left in the zone. (1)
We are sending the supplies. Thats why we want to finish this as soon as possible and get
the people into our side because there are only about 5,000 to say, even 10,000 as they say.
In fact according to UN estimates more than 120,000 civilians were still left in the zone.
But the evidence for the effects of this deprivation do not just come from reports from within
the NFZ. Corrupted Journalisms favoured authority, the UTHR, quote a source working within
the governments own camps for the internally displaced from the war zone after the end of
hostilities. (2)
The new arrivals at Zone Four are the ones who are, compared to all the previous arrivals, the
most famished. For reasons that are self-evident they had been through the worst deprivation
for the longest period. So, their condition on arrival was comparatively deplorable. This is not
to take away the very real and unbearable levels of deprivation of the previous arrivals.
This official reveals that the deliberate denial of adequate food and medicine to these Tamil
civilians continued even in the camps.
Many feeding mothers are not producing milk for their babies. There is no effort by the
government to provide the hungry babies with any milk foods. As a result many babies are in a
very bad condition. Even those with relatives living close by are not allowed to visit them. Even
after allowing visitors, once their security screening and registration is over they are not going
to allow relatives to bring anything near sufficient. The government and certain organizations
will be giving some items. Many aid workers report that the situation is desperate. The rulers
are trying to make out that everything is fine in the camps.
37
The Doctors testimony
In the governments defence Corrupted Journalism has to rely almost entirely on the affidavit
from Dr Shanmugarajah, evidence which is so tainted by the pressure he came under during and
after his arrest.
More reliable is the testimony given by his superior, the most senior government medical
officer who was trapped with him in the No Fire Zone, Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah. Unlike Dr
Shanmugarajah, Dr Varatharajah has managed to leave the country, taking his family with him.
Now free to speak, he has confirmed to an Indian TV station that the doctors were forced to lie at
the press conference by the government.
In our film No Fire Zone he is seen on video talking from his hospital within the NFZ complaining
about the fact that despite requests the government is failing send supplies.
This is the ICU [Intensive Care Unit] but we dont have any ICU facilities: a cardiac monitor
[etc]. We dont have any laboratory facilities. We cant check the blood.
We dont have any antibiotics and blood, so several times weve inform our government, but
the governments not willing to send any medicine here.
Now out of the country he has confirmed what he said then: We would have been able to save
many thousands had we had appropriate medicines.
Humanitarian Access
At the end of the chapter the authors also challenge albeit extremely briefly our evidence on
the restrictions placed in the way of the evacuation of the wounded. They make the contention:
The UN has also documented that the only force obstructing the evacuation of wounded or ill
civilians from the Vanni was the LTTE.
As so often despite their liberal use of footnotes elsewhere this bald assertion has no
reference or stated source. This is probably because it isnt true.
For example United States Sitrep 74 leaked by Wikileaks and quoted in War Crimes
Unpunished records the Presidents brother Basil specifically rejecting a call to allow the ICRC
access.
Ambassador called Basil Rajapaksa to note the reports of many dead and wounded lying
in the conflict zone, and again requested access for the ICRC to the area to evacuate the
wounded. Basil energetically refused
So at this point at least, it was the government not the LTTE which was the force obstructing the
evacuation of wounded.
But Corrupted Journalism describes our failure to mention this demonstrable untruth (that the
only force obstructing the evacuation of wounded or ill civilians from the Vanni was the LTTE)
as one of the missing material facts we used to mislead our viewers. They then suggest as
implausibly as before - that this leaves us in breach of our duties under the broadcasting code.
This is how they put it:
38
These are material facts that were absent from the Channel 4 programmes, which as a result
misled their viewers. The disregarding and omission of these material facts was also unfair to
the Sri Lankan government. Despite the fact that the British media regulators Broadcasting
Code commits broadcasters and programme makers to the inclusion of significant viewpoints
when dealing with matters of major political controversy, these facts and others were absent
from both of Channel 4s programmes.
It is also worth noting that in the course of making the first film, Channel sent an extremely
full and detailed description of all the key allegations to be made in the film to the Sri Lankan
High Commission in London and invited the GOSL to respond in detail. They declined to do so,
stating: As the conduct of Channel 4 with regard to this matter has consistently fallen well short
of the standards and fairness expected of a responsible TV Channel, the Government of Sri
Lanka does not wish to be associated with the Channel at any time unless and until a suitable
retraction is made to the satisfaction of the Government.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Sky interview with President Mahinda Rajapaksa April 28
th
2009
(2) University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna)* sri lanka. uthr(j) Special Report No: 34
Date of release: 13
th
December 200
(3) Interview with Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah on Indian TV station NewsX in November 2013
39
Chapter Nine
The Mobile Telephone Footage
This chapter of Corrupted Journalism sets out to cast doubt on the video evidence of war crimes
and atrocities apparently filmed by Sri Lankan soldiers as war trophies at the end of the war.
It does, however, have a fundamental flaw in that it simply avoids dealing with most of the
footage. The events depicted in those clips are so demonstrably true and corroborated by
other footage and known facts that there is nothing they can say. They also have an additional
constraint: further footage keeps emerging which corroborates our evidence and they know that
process is likely to continue. Indeed one of their central defences was further undermined by
new video evidence which we revealed almost exactly as they were publishing their book .
They do however, address two of the clips in detail. The first shows the execution of bound and
blindfolded male prisoners, and the second concerns the death of the Tamil Tiger TV presenter
Isaipriya.
However in the first case they ignore the conclusions reached by a series of independent and
respected experts who examined the footage in minute detail (and whose findings were summed
up by the UNs Special Rapportuer on Extra-Judicial Killings:
The overall conclusion reached by the experts is that the video is authentic and the events
reflected in the video footage occurred as depicted. The Special Rapporteur has concluded that
the video footage indicates the commission of serious crimes)
In the other case as we shall see - they attempt to hide behind a defence which is both
irrelevant and offensive.
The Execution footage
They open the chapter by mentioning three specific bits of footage. The first is the footage which
shows naked male prisoners being executed in cold blood. This they later discuss in some detail
and we will too.
They continue:
Channel 4 also presented some more footage of an execution of three people whom it states
appear to be Tiger fighters. The broadcaster also screened additional video or mobile telephone
footage which it claimed constituted evidence of the rape and sexual assault of women.
They promise: The simple reality is that these claims cannot be sustained.
Having asserted that the claim that the footage shows the execution of three tiger fighters
cannot be sustained they offer not one shred of evidence to justify this statement. Indeed they
never mention the footage again.
40
A Forensic Examination
However just for the record it is worth establishing that we didnt simply take this trophy
footage at face value. Like all our footage and evidence we do not present it until we are
absolutely certain it is real. Thus we had it first independently examined by a respected team
of forensic digital analysts often used by the British Courts who looked for any evidence of
editing, manipulation, or visual, audio or technical inconsistencies. They also examined the
metadata associated with the footage. They concluded that the footage shows no signs of
manipulation and appears to depict genuine executions. Metadata encoded within the video
indicates it was recorded on the 15
th
of May 2009, in the last few days of the war.
We also had it separately examined by an internationally respected forensic pathologist,
Professor Derek Pounder formerly of Adelaide and Alberta and Calgary Universities and now head
of the Department of Forensic medicine at Dundee Universities. Prof Pounder is listed in Debretts
as a consulting expert to the International Criminal Court, the UN, and the Council of Europe
among others. He is an expert in gunshot injuries and was the pathologist in the recent high
profile inquest into the death of Mark Duggan who was shot by police in Tottenham in London. He
studied the Sri Lankan footage in detail examining the nature of the wounds, the blood spatter,
the way the bodies fell and so on. Unusually of course in this situation he was able to see the
actual moment of death, albeit only on film. He too concluded that there was no evidence to
suggest this footage depicted anything other than a genuine execution.
Finally, as with all the other footage we had the Sinhala dialogue spoken by the soldiers
translated. Because Sinhala soldiers tend to use language with quite a lot of slang, we actually
had it translated separately by a series of Sinhala speakers and then their translations
moderated by a further Sinhala speaker, to ensure our English translation was as accurate as
possible.
Given this thorough forensic approach it is hardly surprising that the authors of Corrupted
Journalism have so little to say about this footage. It is worth noting that we applied this forensic
approach to all the trophy footage shot by SLA soldiers on the battlefield.
41
Evidence of Sexual Assault and the Death of Isaipriya
The third and final point they make in the introductory paragraph is this:
The broadcaster also screened additional video or mobile telephone footage which it claimed
constituted evidence of the rape and sexual assault of women.
About this too, they say: The simple reality is that these claims cannot be sustained. In fact
what they are doing with that statement once again, is accusing us of saying something we
didnt and then attacking us for it.
For a start we did not say that categorically this constituted evidence of rape. We are far more
careful and precise in our use of language than the authors of Corrupted Journalism appear to be.
What we said, based on the way the bodies are arranged and displayed, the way that the clothes
are removed, the way the bodies are treated and the crude sexual comments by the soldiers
filming the bodies, is that, some appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted and then
murdered. The forensic pathologist Professor Pounder, described some of the photographs as
compelling evidence of systematic executions and likely sexual assault of female prisoners prior
to execution.
But there is a more important point to be made here about the claims in Corrupted Journalism
and this concerns the evidence they present in relation to the footage showing the executed and
apparently sexually assaulted body of the Tamil Tiger TV presenter and actor, Isaipriya.
This section begins thus:
Having apparently been ignorant of Vany Kumars clear LTTE links and military training, as
outlined in Chapter 3, Channel 4 was also seemingly unaware that another of their alleged
civilians, Issipriya, who featured in both programmes, was in fact another LTTE member.
In fact, as we have established already Corrupted Journalisms claim of Vany Kumars
clear LTTE links and military training (our emphasis) turned out to be utterly without any
foundation in evidence.
Isaipriya, on the other hand, most certainly was an LTTE member and we made this clear, both
in our films and on Channel 4 News.
In War Crimes Unpunished we described the footage of her dead body as:
footage suggesting sexual violence against female Tigers including the LTTE TV presenter
Isaipriya.
In Sri Lankas Killing Fields we described her thus:
The Tigers also established something that looked very much like a functioning military state,
with an administrative capital, Kilinochchi, and its own banks, schools, police and even a
television station with a star presenter known as Isaipriya.
And in No Fire Zone we included a sequence from the UN worker Benjamin Dix who had met her
- in which he said Isaipriya :
stood for and symbolised the movement of the Tigers which was hard and brutal and
completely focused on their objective of gaining Tamil Eelam and an independent state within
Sri Lanka.
42
In commentary we describe her as:
Isaipriya, the Tiger singer and newsreader.
On Channel 4 News as far back as
December 2010 reporter Jonathan
Miller described her as a fully signed up
member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam designated as a proscribed terrorist
organization.
But despite all of this, as we mentioned
earlier, the authors of Corrupted Journalism
state categorically - and apparently without a
hint of shame:
Channel 4 was also seemingly unaware that another of their alleged civilians, Isipriya, who
featured in both programmes, was in fact another LTTE member.
But it is only as this section continues that the authors reason for maintaining this obvious
fiction become clear.
The Circumstances of Death
Our evidence makes it clear that Isaipriya was executed. In the footage and stills she is seen dead,
partially stripped and with her hands bound behind her back. It is noticeable that the authors of
Crimes Unpunished do not actually come up with any evidence to suggest anything else.
Instead they first try to imply that we were either denying or didnt know of Isaipriyas LTTE
connections and then suggest that our motive for this was to rule out the possibility that she
died in combat. Ergo, their argument runs, having established that she was indeed an LTTE
member it is logical to assume she died in combat.
Presumably they hope that by the time they have taken us through this logic, we will have
forgotten that far from being found armed and in a fighting mode, she was naked with her hands
bound behind her back and the only evidence of injury is a single head-wound.
They also try to suggest that it was normal to strip all the bodies to search for suicide bombs.
This doesnt explain why among the rows of dead bodies seen in photographs, a far higher
proportion of women have been stripped than men.
It doesnt explain why the soldiers filming the naked women say things like: Move the cloth
aside I would like to fuck it again. or I really want to cut off her tits if no one was around.
It also doesnt explain why Isaipriya, whose upper body was stripped at the point of her capture
(see below) and was clearly not wearing a suicide vest, subsequently had the clothes beneath
her waist pulled down.

43
A Pattern of Behaviour
The final piece of evidence the authors present on the whole issue of sexual violence is this
statement:
Accusations of sexual misconduct were also out of keeping with the documented behaviour
of the Sri Lankan army.
In fact there are many documented examples. For example in 2007 108 Sri Lankan soldiers,
including 3 officers of the 950-member-strong Sri Lankan UN peacekeeping contingent in Haiti
were expelled from Haiti after being implicated in sexual abuse. After an inquiry the UN Office
of internal oversight concluded that acts of sexual exploitation and abuse (against children)
were frequent and occurred usually at night, and at virtually every location where the contingent
personnel were deployed.
In a submission last year to the UN United Nations Universal Periodic Review two years ago (1)
a variety of Haitian Human rights and advocacy groups said that Sri Lankan troops had violated
the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols and may be subject to charges of war
crimes. They added:
The Sri Lankan forces may be charged for war crimes since the victims were subjected to
death threats, physical assaults and sexual violence for the victims to engage in sex with
peacekeepers.These actions also constitute crimes against humanity under customary
international criminal law.
To this day in a series of news reports and inquiries by Human Rights groups - Sri Lankan
troops garrisoned in the Tamil areas of the north have been accused of the systematic abuse and
rape of Tamil women. (2) (3)
One final point must be made about the governments posture on our coverage of the death of
Isaipriya a posture echoed so closely by Corrupted Journalism.
It is the disturbing implication that the fact of Isaipriyas membership of the LTTE which they
falsely accuse us of concealing somehow changes everything or is even relevant. That it
somehow justifies, mitigates or even excuses her sexual assault and cold-blooded execution.
Finally, of course, there is one hugely significant piece of evidence which leaves every one of
Corrupted Journalisms claims about Isaipriya bereft of credibility. We mentioned at this start
of this chapter that one of the problems for Corrupted Journalisms authors is that further video
evidence keeps emerging which corroborates our evidence and undermines their defence and
they know that is likely to continue.
What happened in this case is that almost exactly as they published their book we were able to
release a brand new and particularly devastating piece of evidence about the death of Isaipriya.
It was a 48 second long video clip which showed Isaipriya at the point of her capture. She has
been positively identified by several people including close relatives. She is alive and uninjured.
Corrupted Journalisms case that she was killed in combat is shown to be completely false.
It is perhaps worth quoting the Press Release we issued at the time.
The government of Sri Lanka has always claimed that Isaipriya died in combat in the last few
days of the war. But this devastating new video evidence shows that this is simply not true: it
conclusively demonstrates that Isaipriya was captured alive by government forces.
44
The footage shows Isaipriya at the point of her capture. Half naked, she is clearly distressed
and disorientated. These soldiers do not mistreat her - indeed they attempt to cover her
nakedness under the sheet in which she is later found dead.
But the footage proves she was alive and uninjured when taken prisoner. Some information
suggests she was trying to flee by boat. Certainly it is clear from what they say that these
soldiers believe that she is someone important. Indeed one of them asks if she is Tiger Leader
Villupillai Praphakarans daughter. She says she is not.
Director Callum Macrae said: This evidence is extremely important, not just because it
reveals a terrible incident but because, taken with all the other evidence of executions and
mistreatment of prisoners, it suggests this behaviour was systematic. And in a disciplined
army like the Sri Lankan one that would suggest that responsibility for this action can be
traced to the very top.
It also raises questions about how this culture of apparent impunity was allowed to develop
within the Sri Lankan armed forces.
It is known where this happened, it is known who the commanders were in the area and
yet the Sri Lankan government has apparently taken no real steps to investigate and identify
those responsible.
the Sri Lankan Government must explain how Isaipriya came to be stripped naked,
apparently sexually assaulted and executed in the custody of Sri Lankan armed forces. The
fact that she was a Tamil Tiger is no excuse for those crimes.
Execution Video
Corrupted Journalism also devotes a considerable amount of space in this chapter to dealing
with one particular piece of video evidence which became known as The Channel 4 execution
video a chilling sequence in which several men in Sri Lankan army uniforms execute in cold
blood a series of mostly naked men who are blindfolded and have their hands bound.
The case that Corrupted Journalism puts forward is that a section of the video contains some
inconsistencies. These including a date recorded in the metadata, which suggests it was filmed
after the end of the war, and evidence of edits including a section where a letter A can be seen on
the images. They argue that as a result of this:
The authenticity of the mobile telephone video footage shown in the Channel 4 programmes,
particularly that said to show the execution of bound prisoners, continues to be called into
question.
In doing this they echo constant government claims that the videos are faked.
The problem for Corrupted Journalism is that these concerns were actually raised in relation to
an original short version of the clip, just one minute long.
That clip was examined on behalf of the UN Special Rapporteur Mr. Philip Alston, by an
independent video and audio expert, a forensic pathologist and a ballistics expert who also
recognized that some questions remained unanswered although they were in little doubt about
its authenticity. Mr Alston summarized their findings as demonstrating that while there are some
unexplained elements in the video, there are strong indications of its authenticity.
He called for an impartial investigation into whether war crimes had been committed.
45
Those doubts were enough for the government to describe the videos, in effect, as fakes. Those
doubts and unanswered questions are also woven at great length into this section of Corrupted
Journalism.
The problem for the authors of Corrupted Journalism however, is that those concerns were long
ago completely answered.
A Serious Omission
In a remarkable omission Corrupted Journalism fails to mention that subsequently a much
fuller 5 minute long version of the video was obtained and that when this was examined by
independent experts contracted by the UN all the possible significant inconsistencies were
explained.
As the new UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions, Mr Christof Heyns, explained in
his extremely detailed report (4)
Of special importance is the fact that the extended video material has now enabled the
experts to address the issues identified as unanswered during the first round, and relied upon
by the Government as proof that the video was not authentic..
What is reflected in the extended video are crimes of the highest order definitive war crimes.
Judging by the use of cell phones by soldiers in the video, there may well be other records
of the same events available. There appear to be links that can be made to other evidentiary
material, which is already available or may still be brought to light, giving a clearer picture of
what happened during the last phase of the war. Investigating the identity of those whose
faces are captured so clearly on these videos cannot be difficult for the Government, which
may contact the commanders of the troops who participated in the last phases of the war.
Similarly, an international investigation with appropriate powers of inquiry and witness
protection mechanisms will also be well placed to address these issues.
The report also includes the detailed technical reports of the experts. These two have been made
public.(5) Heyns summarises their conclusions:
The overall conclusion reached by the experts is that the video is authentic and the events
reflected in the video footage occurred as depicted. The Special Rapporteur has concluded that
the video footage indicates the commission
of serious crimes, which should together with
any other available evidence be examined
systematically and professionally by domestic
investigators appointed by the Sri Lankan
Government, as well as by an independent,
international investigational body, with a clear
mandate to establish who should be held
accountable for the killings.
Corrupted Journalism entirely fails to mention
any of this. They do though, also suggest an
alternative explanation should their claims
of fakery not be accepted. They suggest the
46
people doing the shooting could be Tamil Tigers disguised as Sri Lankan soldiers making a video
to discredit the Sri Lankan Army (thus suggesting their victims could be captured Sri Lankan
soldiers or even civilians).
This claim doesnt stand up to the most casual of scrutiny. The location is identifiably the
sandspit where the final battle happened. Still photographs from the same scene confirm that.
The victims in the footage include Isaipriya who is clearly identified (and neither Corrupted
Journalism nor the government of Sri Lanka have ever suggested she was killed by the Tigers.
Nor could they now of course, as we have footage of her alive in the custody of recognizable Sri
Lankan soldiers.)
The suggestion that the LTTE in those last desperate days as death became inevitable and
discipline collapsed - could have set up such a hoax and found enough un-accented Sinhala
speaking Tigers and un-blood-soaked SLA uniforms to carry it out - is clearly implausible. That
they could then teach them to use such convincing dialogue and acting, (we had the audio
translated by several independent Sinhala speakers), just adds to the unlikeliness of the claim.
A forged version of the video, with crudely dubbed-on Tamil voices did subsequently appear
on the net but it was so transparently a fraud that even the authors of Corrupted Journalism
clearly couldnt bring themselves to mention it.
In any case it is significant that when the short version of the tape came out the government never
suggested it was Sinhala-speaking Tigers doing the shooting. It was only when the technical
questions about that tape were answered that anyone resorted to the it was all acted excuse.
Even the UN special Rapporteur dismisses this claim as implausible.
The outstanding issues identified during the investigation of the first video have now been
resolved. This includes the apparent inconsistent date on the first video. However, even if
that had not been done, the question could be asked how material that issue was in the first
place. If someone had manufactured a false video of the events during the final stages of
the war, with the malicious intent of portraying the Governments conduct during the war in
a negative light, the last thing one would expect such a person to do is to provide the video
with a date that falls months after the completion of the war. Likewise, it appears highly
unlikely that a person who wants to create the impression that a cell phone was used would
be so careless as to leave an A on the frames if that can only be done on a high quality
video camera.
47
FOOTNOTES
(1) Submission supported by a variety of Haitian Human rights and advoicacy groups to the United Nations Universal
Periodic Review Twelfth Session of the Working Group on the UPR Human Rights Council 3 October 13 October 2011
http://ijdh.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Final_MINUSTAH_English.pdf Also http://articles.latimes.
com/2007/dec/15/world/fg-haitisex15
(2) BBC report. Tamils still being raped and tortured in Sri Lanka http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24849699
(3) Rights Watch Report: Politically Motivated Sexual Assaults in Custody Continue Since Conflict
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/02/26/we-will-teach-you-lesson
(4) UN Special Rapporteurs report from page 423 http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Executions/A-HRC-17-28-
Add1.pdf
(5) (4) UN Special Rapporteurs report technical assessments from page 430=472 http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/
Issues/Executions/A-HRC-17-28-Add1.pdf
A crude reductionism
In the end the authors of Corrupted Journalism resort, as they frequently do, to summarizing the
complex evidence we present above as crudely as possible, in order to criticize it.
The director of the Channel 4 programmes, Callum Macrae, said the gunmen must have been
army soldiers because they were wearing Sri Lankan army uniforms and spoke Sinhalese.
Describing this crude reductionist version of our evidence as naive but understandably self-serving
they launch into a comparison which would be laughable were the subject matter not so serious.
It is perhaps fortunate that Macrae was not in a position of responsibility in 1939. Following
his logic, he may have accepted at face value Nazi claims that Polish soldiers had attacked
German border posts on the German-Polish frontier on 31 August 1939, claims then used by
the Nazis as a pretext for their invasion of Poland. The BBC reported on 1 September 1939,
that [The invasion] follows yesterdays report on German radio that the border town of Gliwice
had been raided by a group of Polish soldiers, who had all been shot dead.

The simple fact
is that the attackers were Polish-speaking German troops, dressed in Polish uniforms, who
left behind dead bodies in Polish uniforms. The bodies were in fact those of prisoners from
concentration camps; they were dressed in Polish uniforms, killed and left behind. The bodies
that were left behind were described by the Germans as Konserve i.e., canned goods (which
also led to the German code name for the operation, Operation Konserve)
This discordant and inappropriate analogy stands very uncomfortably in a discussion of such very
serious matters.
48
Chapter Ten
A Forensic Investigation
The chapter sets out to attack the notion that our investigation was forensic and consists
largely of rehearsals of the arguments dealt with in previous chapters. It is perhaps worth picking
up on a couple though. The chapter begins by repeating the authors earlier canard.
the victims of the shelling were present in the conflict zone because they were part of the
civilian population that had in effect been abducted by the LTTE.
In fact as the authors have already admitted elsewhere, the victims were in the no fire zone or
conflict zone as they more accurately call it here - not because they had been abducted by
the LTTE, but because they had been advised to gather there by the government for their own
safety. Their situation as we explained in our films - was then made worse by the fact that the
LTTE would not let those who wanted to leave, do so.
Our description is accurate and even-handed. Theirs is selective and one-sided. The suggestion
that it is us who are failing to be forensic is simply untenable.
They then repeat another contention designed to undermine the suggestion that our evidence
would be considered by a court.
The UNs 2010 technical report has also quite correctly stated that the alleged footage cannot
be authenticated to an absolute certainty without access to both the original footage and the
device purportedly used to make the recording for further testing and comparison. Despite
requests by both the United Nations and the Government of Sri Lanka, Channel 4 has not
provided them with either. In a real court this would also not be tolerated.
49
As they know perfectly well the 2010 report was superseded by the 2011 report in which the UN
declared: The outstanding issues identified during the investigation of the first video have now
been resolved.
They also know if they have read the UN report that Channel 4 did indeed provide the UN
with the footage who in turn provided it to the government.
Their final suggestion that somehow Channel 4 is in a better position than the Sri Lankan military
authorities to recover the soldiers mobile phone is clearly not sensible. Indeed that the Sri
Lankan military have so far not (publicly at least) made any efforts to recover any phone footage
from the soldiers under their command is in itself a cause for concern.
Professor Pounder
The attack on the professional credibility of the respected forensic pathologist Professor Derek
Pounder which follows cannot be allowed to pass without comment.
As we explained, Professor Pounder is one the leading forensic pathologists in the world - formerly
of Adelaide and Alberta and Calgary Universities and now head of the Department of Forensic
medicine at Dundee Universities. He is also a consulting expert to the International Criminal Court,
the UN, and the Council of Europe among others.
The attack on him ranges from the irrelevant, (an extract from a academic discussion on an entirely
different matter), the frankly odd (the suggestion that because he is interested in human rights
this somehow disqualifies him from dealing with issues to do with human rights), to the simply
insulting, (suggesting his contribution was something any layman would be capable of doing).
Their critique starts with an early observation by Professor Pounder.
There is a very high incidence of lethal gunshot wounds to the head raising the strong
suspicion of executions at the time of surrender, with aimed head shots to stationary,
highly visible targets.
The authors do not agree, suggesting, inter alia, that these could have been caused by the Tigers
shooting themselves in the head. As an alternative they add: Pounder may also have been
unaware of the fact that the LTTE cadres often wore body armour which can only be defeated by
shots to the head.
Clearly realizing there is a problem with this because normally if you wear body armour you also
wear a helmet, they later note: While helmets were worn by Sri Lankan combat troops, LTTE
combatants appear not to have used them.
They supply a reference in the footnotes to the evidence for their contention that the LTTE often
wore body armour. Problematically - as so often with Corrupted Journalism - this evidence turns
out to show no such thing. It turns out to be a Tiger propaganda pop-video called Tamil Tigers
Latest & the Greatest Video Song Ever. (1) In the video - featuring archive of battle and training
scenes the vast majority of cadre are not wearing body armour and the small number who are,
are also wearing helmets! Their reference source actually disproves their thesis.
50
The Death of Prabakharan
Next, after expending several hundred words on irrelevant discussion of a photograph which does
not even appear in the film, the authors focus on the death of LTTE leader Villupilai Prabakharan
and his 12 year old son Balachandran.
At the end of the war Government of Sri Lanka sources came up with several conflicting
versions of - and times for - his death: variously suggesting he was killed trying to escape in an
ambulance, or that he was found the next day in a lagoon.
There was a curious confluence of interest between Tiger supporters and the government who
both wanted to show that Prabakharan died in combat. The former to preserve the heroic notion
that he would never surrender and the latter to prevent suggestions he was executed. Perhaps
because of this the authors of Corrupted Journalism suggest, rather surprisingly, that the LTTEs
view on how Prabakharan died is more relevant than Professor Pounders.
So what can we tell independently about what happened? It is clear that many attempts were
made to disguise the circumstances and location of the death. Photographs taken officially and
unofficially by government forces show that his body was first dressed in a Tiger military uniform
then naked and first clean, then smeared in mud.
In the officially released photographs he is wearing his uniform, but a head wound is covered
so that it cannot be seen however several unofficial photographs have appeared which show a
gaping wound in his forehead.
The appearance of the injury led to all sorts of wild speculation about how he had died one of
the most frequent stories was that he had been captured and then killed by a blow to his head
with an axe. In those circumstances we could not possibly do what the authors of Corrupted
Journalism appear to want us to do which is to simply accept whatever version the government
finally settled on, especially when, for different reasons, Tiger supporters want us to believe the
same story.
Given that taking those stories at face value was not a professionally acceptable option, we
asked Professor Pounder for an assessment of the appearance of the wound.
His reply is cautious and unlike the version which Corrupted Journalism seem to want us to
accept is based on the evidence that is available, rather than the vested interests of either the
government or supporters of the LTTE.
This would be very typical of a high-velocity gunshot wound to the head, where were looking
at an exit area at the front, and therefore - not seen in the photograph- presumably an entry
wound to the back of the head.
So a single gunshot wound to the head is a little unusual in terms of an armed conflict - in
terms of a shoot-out, if you like - then it would suggest that perhaps, it was, it is a targeted
shot at a subject who wasnt moving.
We submit that Professor Pounders cautious and qualified professional assessment is more
independent and reliable than the partisan spin put on the events by the LTTE, the government,
or its supporters who wrote Corrupted Journalism.
51
Balachandran
Finally Corrupted Journalism moves onto the footage and stills of the child Balachandran who is
shown dead, with five bullet wounds to the torso, surrounded by the bodies of five men believed
to be his bodyguards. They have been shot and the blindfolds and rope which had bound their
hands and eyes can still be seen. Leaving aside the authors woefully imprecise summary of
Pounders very specific analysis of each of the five bullet wounds in the childs torso (even fuller
in the complete interview he provided, but cut down for time reasons in the film), we move onto
their possible explanations for Balachandrans death, consisting of speculation far wilder than
anything they accuse us of.
In direct contradiction to their earlier theories they now suggest that the boys father may have
chosen death not just for himself but the whole family, citing the behavior of the Nazis to justify
their case.
It is very possible that the LTTE leader Prabakharan may have chosen death rather than
capture not just for himself but also for his family members just as many Nazi leaders did in
the Gtterdmmerung they visited upon their country, their compatriots and their families
in the ruins of Berlin in May 1945. Dr Joseph Goebbels, for example, arranged for his six
children to be killed by his colleagues before committing suicide together with his wife.
Prabakharan may have given instructions for his sons escorts to kill him rather than have
him fall into government hands.
The problem with this theory is that, in both the footage and stills of the aftermath, those escorts are
also dead. Clearly, despite what Corrupted Journalism may wish to believe, they did not first execute
the child then bind their own hands, blindfold themselves and shoot themselves in the head.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Tamil Tigers Latest & the Greatest Video Song Ever First uploaded on Youtube in 2008 http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=l2BowEEb3KI
52
Chapter Eleven
A failure in Media Regulation
This chapter opens by quoting a review of Sri Lankas Killing Fields by the television critic , A. A.
Gill. In the review, Gill, after a lengthy attack on Jon Snows choice of ties and socks, makes it
clear that (unlike other reviewers and industry judges ranging from BAFTA to the Royal Television
Society), he did not like the film. That is his right, of course.
But when his review was seized upon by supporters of the Sri Lankan government, including the
authors of Corrupted Journalism, as some kind of defence against the charges made by the film
he felt constrained to clarify his position and wrote a follow-up. In this he was clear what he felt
about the government of Sri Lanka and its supporters.
We might think that by the time supporters of a government are reduced to quoting a TV
critic to back up its record, theyre clawing at the barrel bottom with their fingernails.
Subsequent events and inquiries from every other source, from the United Nations down,
have backed up the original segment. Channel 4s gut, its news instinct, has been wholly
vindicated. And if some people choose to use that as a quote to rebut a threadbare defence of
the indefensible, well, theres nothing I can do about it.
It is also worth noting that the authors of Corrupted Journalism opened this chapter and
introduced Gills review by claiming:
The lapse in journalistic standards apparent in Channel 4s first Killing Fields programme
appalled fellow British journalists. The well-known British journalist A A Gill was particularly
critical.
In fact a thorough search of comments on the film by British journalists reveals that AA Gill
appears to have been the only journalist to have been critical of the film, let alone appalled by it.
And even he now says the Channel has been wholly vindicated.
The rest of this short chapter consists of an attack on the British regulator. The reason for this is
clear, and more than a little edifying. In what had every appearance of an orchestrated event, Sri
Lankan Government supporters made over 100 complaints about our TV coverage to the UKs
independent broadcasting regulatory body, The Office of Communications (OFCOM).
These submissions to OFCOM included, as Corrupted Journalism acknowledges, a 389-page
complaint (including 19 appendices) about our second film War Crimes Unpunished. It was one
of the longest complaints, ever received by OFCOM.
The complaint was lodged by an organization called Sri Lanka Media Watch, whose only public
presence is a page on the Engage Sri Lanka website which published the anonymously written
Corrupted Journalism. Engage Sri Lanka is not a legally incorporated entity and we have found no
reference to it by other official bodies.
The other main complainant about the second film was Lord Naseby. Lord Naseby is a
Conservative Peer and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sri Lanka. From entries in the
Register of Lords Interests, it appears that he has visited Sri Lanka as a guest of the Government
of Sri Lanka on numerous occasions in recent years. On most if not all of those occasions the Sri
Lankan Government appears from the record to have paid for his accommodation and/or travel
and/or other expenses
53
The main reason for Corrupted Journalisms unhappiness with the regulator is clear. After
lengthy investigations every single complaint was rejected. It was accepted we had carried out
an extensive investigation, verified the authenticity of this material and subjected evidence to
rigorous journalistic analysis and cross-checking.
That finding was echoed by other national regulators. As Corrupted Journalism itself points
out, when the Norwegian Channel NRK broadcast Sri Lankas Killing Fields a similar complaint
was put the Norwegian regulator, the Norwegian Press Complaints Commission. That too was
rejected.
Corrupted Journalism takes the view that this simply proves the regulators have got it wrong.
Others may take the view that is the anonymous writers of Corrupted Journalism who are way off
the mark.
54
Postscript
Normally one would not take an anonymously published document too seriously certainly
to the extent of producing so detailed reply. However Corrupted Journalism has been widely
distributed and extensively quoted in Sri Lankan newspapers and has been sent to many
journalists and academics, as well as diplomats and politicians. It clearly has the potential to
mislead large numbers of people and muddy the debate not least by entirely failing to address
or confront the key revelations of our journalism.
There is no company or legal entity mentioned in the book as being responsible. The publisher is
only identified by a website address: www.EngageSriLanka.com.
It also clearly has significant financial backing but there is no indication of where this comes
from. Unlike Channel 4 which is a regulated and licensed public service broadcaster which
produces an audited annual report each year Engage Sri Lankas finances, backers, office
bearers and authors are anonymous. Readers cannot tell when reading Corrupted Journalism if
this organisations financial, political or other considerations have influenced the writing.
55
Callum Macrae
is the director of the Sri Lankas Killing Fields, Sri Lankas Killing Fields: War Crimes
Unpunished and the feature documentary No Fire Zone
A BAFTA and Grierson nominee, he has won many accolades including two Royal
Television Society awards, two One World awards, an Amnesty Award as well as a
Columbia DuPont Broadcast journalism Award and a Peabody in the US.
He has worked around the world from Japan to Haiti and made several films in
Africa covering conflicts in Cote DIvoire, Uganda, Mali, and Sudan. His films
include three major investigations into allegations of coalition crimes in Iraq.
As a writer he was awarded a campaigning journalist of the year award and was
recently presented with a Scottish BAFTA special achievement award.
@Callum_Macrae
Channel 4s coverage of the last period of Sri Lankas bloody civil war though Channel 4 News,
its two documentaries in the Sri Lankas Killing Fields series and the feature documentary No Fire
Zone has provoked an unparalleled response.
Cited approvingly by the UN, praised by the Prime Minister and the recipient of several industry
awards, the channels journalism has been credited with transforming the worlds awareness of
these terrible crimes. It was seen to have set the agenda for the controversial Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting in November 2013 and even saw the team nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize.
But there has been hostility too. The team have been subjected to death threats, vilification and,
in Sri Lanka, a series of hostile pro-government demonstrations.
In the UK a website called Engage Sri Lanka orchestrated a series of well-funded attacks on
the films, including a 389 page complaint to the regulator OFCOM which was rejected. In late
2013 it published a 222 page book which was widely distributed to journalists, academics, politicians
and people of influence. It was called Corrupted Journalism: Channel 4 and Sri Lanka.
This booklet is a detailed and considered response.