Senior executives at Bell Pottinger told undercover reporters that they were so influential that they had written a key speech given by the Sri Lankan President to the United Nations.

During the address by President Mahinda Rajapaksa last year, which the company said was used in preference to one prepared by the Sri Lankan foreign ministry, the President suggested rules governing the humanitarian conduct of war should be re-examined. He also described his troops’ action against Tamil Tiger separatists as humanitarian.

I find it rather interesting that Groundview’s tag line has changed from “Citizen Journalism” to “Journalism for Citizens” with the new WordPress update. Anyway, according to you belle, it would seem that these terms are rather oxymorons going by your views of journalism. Essentially your view is that a journalist must be someone who has proper training and experience in the field of reporting/media. Where as sites like groundviews exist on the premise that ordinary citizens can also report/contribute at grassroots levels and become journalists in their own way. I really do think that you need to relax your classifications of journalist. If you saw the last link I posted, people are questioning whether Julian Assange is a journalist. Whether he should have the same protections as career journalists. I can understand why someone like you would feel threatened by the broadening definition of your own profession. But times have changed!

If you also read blogs on the Gawker network, you’d know that most of them are not your traditional journalist types.

Anyway, is he a journalist?

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/368131/december-09-2010/international-manhunt-for-julian-assange—daniel-ellsberg

I’d like to get your opinion since you’re a journalist type as I suspected.

“They delayed the fascist plan to colonize the North for 30 years.”

Kindly provide us evidence of this master plan.

Was this worth the death of tens of thousands of Tamils and the suffering of thousands more??

http://www.groundviews.org/2010/09/23/submissions-before-lessons-learnt-reconciliation-committee-llrc-by-chandra-jayaratne/
Submission before Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) by Chandra Jayaratne, 23 September 2010:

IDP’s being denied access to their former places of residence
Challenging the right to title of the properties traditionally owned and /or occupied persons living in conflict affected areas
Large tracts of previously occupied lands being demarcated as high security zones
Unjustified land acquisitions on security considerations but allocated for non security related purposes
The publicly announced resettlement benefits to internally displaced persons not being distributed equitably and in line with the announced scheme
Lack of basic amenities like water, sanitation, power and proper housing for the newly resettled families
Resource allocation not determined on community priorities and allocated without consultation and outside the need base and at times missing the most vulnerable and in need, possibly due to identity based biases
Some areas like Jaffna receiving more than necessary resource allocations and peripheral areas lacking in even basic allocations
Preventing willing and capable NGO’s/INGO’s, international community and Diaspora from helping people in need at their most vulnerable moment of need
Building of new permanent military cantonments with residential facilities for military personnel and their families
Plans to settle majority community families in order to change the traditional area demography otherwise than by natural development oriented migration
Arbitrary arrests and detention in the post war period as well
Continuing active engagement of unauthorized armed groups
Continuing disappearances of civilians
List of persons in custody, camps and detention centres not being made public
Failure to assist families in tracing missing persons
Negative impact on civilians during the conflict due military excesses
Unease of single women headed families fearing for their safety in the presence of large number of armed personnel of the forces
Removal of burial sites of persons affected by the conflict
Some important cultural, religious and remembrance sites being damaged and destroyed
Disrespect shown by visitors to holy sites and sites held in high esteem by resident communities
Free availability of liquor, cigarettes and narcotics
Emerging consumerism promoted by business houses who fail to participate in adding value to the civilian communities
Savings of the region being channelled to other areas whilst unmet needs of area community remain
Decision making in the hands of the military or officials from the Central Government.

yes i agree they have some writers with journalistic experiences and editorial skills but not most of them – http://techcrunch.com/staff/

the guy who started it from humble beginning mr. arrington was a career lawyer! kincaid is a ucla bilogy major. seigler is a film major and web developer, etc. etc. but their passion is tech and they blogged about it before they hit the big time!

lot of people research and write for various purposes including my self. but i do not consider my self as a journalist!

Are you forgetting that long before Prabhakaran was born, the South rejected any kind of political settlement with the Tamils? Where was Prabhakaran when the Banda-Chelvam Pact was botched? Where was Prabhakaran when GG Ponnambalam’s 50-50 proposal was rejected? Where was Prabhakaran when the Dudley-Chelva Pact was broken? Not even S.W.R.D, despite his illusions of Sinhalese supremacy, could escape the wrath of the Sinhalese nationalists…

Fast-forward 60 years. Prabhakaran is gone… where is the political solution? What happened to the proposals of the much hyped APRC? Forget the waving of Eelam flags… don’t you think that if MR could push through an amendment to make himself dictator for life, he could easily get a proposal passed for devolution for the minorities? But let’s face the truth! Devolution is not on MR’s agenda. His agenda is Sinhala nationalism, pure and simple. You don’t see the Sinhalese nationalists on the streets protesting against MR, do you?

What should Tamils expect from this regime? Absolutely nothing, except the continuation of the program of deliberate and subtle state-sponsored subjugation. It is in this context that the diaspora Tamils protested the planned speech at the OU. Clearly, the protest was not without just cause! MR speaking at the OU is not very different from Anagarika Dharmapala speaking on Sea Street – both had/have the same purpose in mind.

“it is much more useful for Tamils to get foreign governments to pressure GOSL”

“End justifies the means”- Machiavelli said. But your “end” does not justify “the means” (not accepting any wrong of the part from Tamils and trying to revive the separatist old ideology of LTTE with the connivance of the LTTE remnants).

When the end is not justifiable as in the case of yours, even Machiavelli becomes miserable. Therefore, your arguments made with great efforts have no value and invariably fail.

Thanks!