Twitter war over CHOGM media coverage
"Old diplomats never die," wrote Twitter user @AmmoVanderbilt on Friday. "They just crack under pressure of trolling & degenerate into swearing at people online".
The allusion was clearly to Bandula Jayasekera (@bundeljayse), Sri Lanka's s Consul General in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia and former head of the Presidential Media Unit.
Last week -- in between watching the Ashes and extolling the performance/Sri Lankan "heritage" of debutante Australian cricketer Ashton Agar -- the irrepressible Mr. Jayasekera waged a Twitter war with several journalists.
It started with the diplomat declaring some weeks ago that he would not allow documentary film maker Callum Macrae (@Callum_Macrae) to cover the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Macrae produced a series of controversial "documentaries" on Sri Lanka's war for Channel 4, including Sri Lanka's Killing Fields and No Fire Zone and seems to have waged a personal war on Sri Lanka. Last week, he was in Malaysia screening his documentary with the help of some anti-Sri lanka lobby group when the local police and Immigration officials arrived. He ran away through the rear door, and took the first plane available to Canada -- a country that is openly against the hosting of CHOGM in Sri Lanka.
Local media accreditation for CHOGM is handled by a separate committee, with an official identity card from the Department of Media Information being the main criteria. The Commonwealth Secretariat has the sole authority over international media accreditation, as the Secretariat emphasised last week in a statement.
It was issued in response to a letter written to Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma by Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Mr. Simon expressed concern about media accreditation procedures for CHOGM in view of media reports from Colombo indicating that the Government intends to "enforce stringent background checks on any foreign journalists covering the meeting, with the apparent intention of denying them permission to enter the country". He asked Mr. Sharma to ensure that the Sri Lankan Government did not prohibit access to any journalists.
Commonwealth Spokesman Richard Uku clarified saying, "As is customary, the Commonwealth Secretariat is the final authority for all international media accreditation for CHOGM". He said that, "Media accreditation is open to all bona fide journalists, including online media practitioners, broadcasters, photographers, film and television camera crews and technicians. Every effort will be made to facilitate attendance and coverage of CHOGM by the media".
Mr. Jayasekera, one-time Presidential spokesman, however continues to assert that he would not allow certain journalists to enter Sri Lanka for CHOGM.
On Thursday, websites tweeted Mr. Simon's letter. Mr. Jayasekera tweeted back, asking why any country would issue visas "for terrorist backers and mercenaries using blood money". He also tweeted, "…I read a comment on Derana (a local tv channel) that stray dogs should not be allowed".
When one twitter pointed out that CPJ was talking about journalists, not dogs. Mr Jayasekera replied, "Yes. Macrae is not a journalist so why get him involved in this? Let's talk about journos then".
The conversations got more heated, with Mr. Jayasekera repeatedly saying "terrorists" and "mercenaries in the guise of journalists would not be allowed into Sri Lanka to cover CHOGM.
When Frances Harrison, former BBC Journalist and author of 'Still Counting the Dead' (another anti- Sri Lanka publication) entered into the debate, Mr. Jayasekera called her "white tigress" and "white tiger crap". He also asked: "Why is that woman @francesharris an LTTE backer poking her mouth to everything Sri Lanka?"
Others who criticised his comments were quickly dismissed as "LTTE Terrorist rump", "member of the rump", "LTTE rump", "overseas rump", "the rump" and so on. He liberally accused various people of taking money from the LTTE. Among the other labels he used were "cowards", "bunch of losers".
He also indicated that the Sri Lanka website Groundviews would not be permitted to cover CHOGM.
Media Ministry Secretary Charitha Herath, who added his own comments twice during the twitter war, has not responded to the question of who would, or would not receive accreditation for CHOGM.
Whatever the Commonwealth Secretariat might say, Sri Lanka, in the end, is a sovereign nation holding the sovereign right to decide to whom it issues visas -- CHOGM or no CHOGM. Ask the US if that is not so; even with the United Nations in New York. You need a valid visa to enter the US in the first place if you want to visit the UN.