Photo credit FCO
[Editors note: Also listen to Interview with Alistair Burt on Sri Lanka]
On 5th February 2013, UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt hosted a live interview session via Twitter. Alistair Burt is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs. At the time of the interview, the Minister had recently returned from an official visit to Sri Lanka.
Twitter interviews are not new. The first international diplomat to do so on Sri Lanka was US Assistant Secretary of State and former Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake, in April 2012. Sadly, save for Groundviews, no one else from Sri Lanka or interested in Sri Lanka posed questions to him.
The second Twitter interview of importance was with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Baroness Valerie Amos in December 2012. Though not specifically anchored to Sri Lanka, the interview was an unmitigated disaster for OCHA, with vital questions around the UN’s possible complicity in human rights violations and other very serious matters arising out of the Petrie Report, repeatedly posed by Groundviews and others, going without even a simple acknowledgement, leave aside coherent answer.
Minister Burt’s session lasted 45 minutes precisely, and he responded to 2 questions of ours.
@alistairburtfco When you see progress, how would you define reconciliation, as it applies to #srilanka? #askFCO #lka
— Groundviews (@groundviews) February 5, 2013
@ggponnambalam @alistairburtfco Does HMG still believe there is an independent judiciary in #srilanka? #askFCO
— Groundviews (@groundviews) February 5, 2013
Other issues covered included the UK’s participation in the CHOGM meeting scheduled for later this year in Sri Lanka, the UK Government’s stance on changing the venue for the meeting, the nature of a political settlement in Sri Lanka, the Minister’s take on reconciliation and what he saw as progress in this regard, the impeachment of the Chief Justice, the independence on the judiciary, the nature of democracy in Sri Lanka and the future for liberal and Commonwealth values, issues related to war crimes accountability, impunity, human rights violations, the deterioration of the freedom of expression and the intimidation of journalists and activists.
In addition to engaging with the Minister and a number of other vital voices through @groundviews on Twitter in real-time as the interview progressed, Groundviews archived every single tweet with the hashtag #askFCO published during this period.
The top discussants, including Minister Burt, in this session were,
- arjunan 52
- Bav3 51
- groundviews 38
- AlistairBurtFCO 31
- francesharris0n 28
- UshaSris 27
- SLcampaign 19
- FCOHumanRights 19
- UKinSriLanka 14
- peacemother1 13
- SyadaDastagir 13
- foreignoffice 13
- GGPonnambalam 12
- sarojpathi 12
- TejshreeThapa 12
- GTFonline 12
- friendmoscow 11
- vakesan 11
- prabudeepan 10
- jayshreebajoria 10
- ChetcutiPauline 10
Not a single other media institution in Sri Lanka active on Twitter (Sunday Times, Daily Mirror, Ada Derana, Ceylon Today, Sunday Leader) engaged with the Minister over Twitter at this time with their official accounts, though a number of journalists did.
Revealingly, the interview and issues arising from it made it to the front page of two leading Tamil newspapers in Sri Lanka, but wasn’t mentioned in the front pages of any English or Sinhala media.
As we did during the UPR sessions on Sri Lanka in 2012, you can download all the 770 tweets published during this Twitter interview as an Excel spreadsheet here. These tweets are also available as an interactive data visualisation.
See the data visualisation live here (requires powerful computer, and preferably, large screen).
Editors note: Our readers requested the tweets published by Alistair Burt. Here’s a list of them, excluding retweets by him during the interview (all of which are included in the archive).
I am online now and ready to take your questions on #SriLanka. Please use #AskFCO.
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@AmnestyUK Yes. Still believe that although progress been made, much remains to be done. Hope SL gov will work constructively. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@tamilsforum The war ended in 2009 but the route of conflict as set out by LLRC still needs to be addressed. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@lucywake Essential that human rights defenders are free to speak out as we continue to make clear to SL authorities
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@GTFonline we look to SL to demonstrate those commonwealth values of good governance, rule of law and #humanrights. #AskFCO pt1
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@GTFonline it is obvious we are prepared to challenge where there concerns about these values. #AskFCO pt2
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@mattbjones An understanding of the past, reconciliation in the present and a future based on commonwealth values #askFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@ratnaraja take statements of visit as a whole. Have always made clear resp of all parties to conflict. Role of LTTE must not be minimized.
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@vakesan there is freedom of speech but too many comments about intimidation to be ignored. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@groundviews physical change such as roads or return from camps is genuine but not sufficient. Political settlement fundamental. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@SAN_Rajkumar There are many questions, trying to answer a representative sample as they come in #askFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@ACF_France we look to host of #CHOGM to adhere to #commonwealth values. Location for CHOGM was commonwealth's choice. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@rkguruparan GOSL brought forward an action plan with timelines. We welcomed this & encourage progress in accordance. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@ChetcutiPauline Raised in UPR in Geneva, supported UN HRC resolution in March, continue to press with gov. Despite this not enough progress
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@vakesan UK not on CMAG. Repeat that we expect host to demonstrate strong Commonwealth values. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@groundviews @ggponnambalam made clear our concern about reputation of independence because of Chief Justice impeachment. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@TejshreeThapa @groundviews @acf_france I made clear that the UK has not yet decided on level of any attendance at CHOGM. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@rkguruparan Detail of political settlement must be for Sri Lankans themselves. We encourage TNA and govt to make serious progress. #askFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
@FreefromTorture UK concerned about #humanrights in SL including torture. Support HRC action. #AskFCO
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013
Thank you for all your questions on #SriLanka. Continue to follow # this debate with @foreignoffice.
— Alistair Burt (@AlistairBurtMP) February 5, 2013