{"id":119329,"date":"2014-02-01T13:26:19","date_gmt":"2014-02-01T07:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=119329"},"modified":"2014-02-08T13:26:13","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T07:56:13","slug":"the-war-in-sri-lanka-ap-bureau-chiefs-slanted-story-for-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-war-in-sri-lanka-ap-bureau-chiefs-slanted-story-for-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"The War In Sri Lanka: AP Bureau Chief&#8217;s Slanted Story For USA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0<\/strong><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Michael+Roberts&amp;x=12&amp;y=2\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Michael Roberts<\/span><\/a> &#8211;<\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_101329\" style=\"width: 115px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Michael-Roberts.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101329\" class=\"size-full wp-image-101329\" alt=\"Dr. Michael Roberts\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Michael-Roberts.jpg\" width=\"105\" height=\"116\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-101329\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Ravi Nessman at Sea on Tavis Smiley Show, 18 February 2009: how not to report on war<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ravi Nessman was Associated Press Bureau Chief in 2008\/09 based in either Delhi or Colombo. He was carried to the war front\u00a0<b>on day visits<\/b>\u00a0in October 2008<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_edn1\">[1]<\/a><b>\u00a0<\/b>and late January 2009. He was certainly located in Colombo when asked by the\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a title=\"Public Broadcasting Service\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Public_Broadcasting_Service\">Public Broadcasting Service<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(PBS) to speak to America on the show that is simply titled\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><i><a title=\"Tavis Smiley (TV series)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tavis_Smiley_%28TV_series%29\">Tavis Smiley<\/a><\/i><\/span>. This show usually features \u201ca unique mix of news and pop culture to create a thought-provoking and entertaining program. A hybrid of news, issues and entertainment, it features interviews with artists, activists, news makers, politicians and everyday people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the 18<sup>th<\/sup> February 2009 in \u201cepisode 18 of Season 6, Smiley interviewed Dr Palitha Kohona and then Ravi Nessman . For a live hearing of the latter session with Nessman, see;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/a2ZqLlpuLBE?rel=0;showinfo\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Critical Comments<\/b>\u00a0are inserted at the end of this word-for-word record of the interview.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cInterview with Associated Press Writer Ravi Nessman on the Tavis Smiley Show,\u201d 18 February 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>Smiley Q:<\/b>\u00a0The government there has been accused of targeting civilians the UN.. \u00a0in fact has \u2026. Has\u2026.something to say about the strategy of the government\u00a0 in Sri Lanka Um.. what.. what\u2019s your sense as a journalist of how that part of the story is being covered with regard to accusations against the government?<\/p>\n<p><b>Nessman A:<\/b>\u00a0 This is a very difficult story to cover as a journalist. The worst one is a black hole(unclear) \u00a0we are barred from going in \u2026\u00a0 most aid workers are barred from going in, so all of these accusations are fly back and forth a lot of it is ..is based on.. on \u00a0scattered reports that we are getting, \u00a0the very few reports we are able to get and from what we are able to get from \u00a0..um ..Doctors up there who are the very few people there with telephones that that \u2018s the work from some of the witnesses who fled, \u00a0from civilians who left, \u00a0is 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. On the other hand the Tamil Tigers have been accused by some of the civilians who fled,\u00a0 of shooting at the fleeing civilians. The government says that ..um.. they are being used as human shields to.. to. .. prevent the government offensive from taking that last bit of land. Both sides deny all the accusations against them but what seems clear from the reports is that civilians are being killed, and they are being killed by both sides.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_119348\" style=\"width: 522px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/27-Jan-Ravi-N-interview-with-Udawattta.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-119348\" class=\" wp-image-119348 \" alt=\"Nessman interviwing officer Udawatta -Pic bt Prasad, c 27 January 2009\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/27-Jan-Ravi-N-interview-with-Udawattta.jpg\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/27-Jan-Ravi-N-interview-with-Udawattta.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/27-Jan-Ravi-N-interview-with-Udawattta-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-119348\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nessman interviwing officer Udawatta -Pic bt Prasad, c 27 January 2009<\/p><\/div>\n<p><b>Smiley Q:<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0So given that again that the Tamil people are\u2026. at least those who are fighting, are boxed in now to this area in the north east part of the country.. \u2026 you have any sense of how much\u00a0 longer it will be before at least the official, if I can use that word the civil war that is under way \u2026 how long before this part of this story\u00a0 is over?<\/p>\n<p><b>Nessman A:<\/b>\u00a0 We can\u2019t get up there and the information is so scattered that we are getting are ,\u2026.um\u2026. you know, \u00a0we hear reports of battles that are rumoured that may or may not even be happening , massive casualties on one side, massive casualties on the other\u2026. I can\u2019t tell you if the\u2026.if the\u00a0 Tamil Tigers even retain a conventional fighting component right now\u00a0 \u2026 or are still maintain a massive army\u00a0 up there. We have absolutely no idea. Um ..the President himself said on February fourth we are just days away, the government was just days away from victory over the Tamil Tigers. But this is more than two later and there\u2019s still fighting going on. So it\u2019s \u2026 it\u2019s very difficult to know what\u2019s exactly going on in the North, how long it\u2019s going to go on for, what kind of fighting is.. is\u00a0 actually happening,\u00a0 what the capabilities are of both sides.<\/p>\n<p><b>COMMENTS in point-form:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><\/b>1. It would be simplistic for us laymen to think that \u201cembedded\u201d western reporters in Western wars get to see the knitty-gritty of action. USA is notoriously cautious about their accreditation. Much war correspondent reportage tends to be technical and\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/02\/kate-adie-of-bbc-reporting-on-war-women-at-war\/\">about hardware<\/a><\/span>\u00a0as Kate Adie tells us.<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_edn2\">[2]<\/a>\u00a0A great deal depends on the cartographic context and the character of the battle theatres. Where there are no static lines and the battlefield area is a mosaic, or where a war engulfs a large city where journalists reside, there then they get to film live action. It is in such theatres that reporters die.<\/p>\n<p>2. Nessman\u2019s interview is a striking revelation. It combines profound ignorance with prejudice, slant and lie.<\/p>\n<p>3. For someone located in Colombo in late February 2009 to say that he did not know whether the LTTE retained a \u201cconventional fighting force\u201d reveals a degree of astounding blindness. While some scepticism towards GSL announcements is (was) understandable the video footage on TV screens with their Sinhala commentary, as well as tales from Tamil civilians who had escaped from their corralled situation, would have indicated that the Tigers retained their mortars and artillery and that such gun barrage exchanges were continuing (these lasted till mid-May in fact).<\/p>\n<p>4. It appears that Nessman, fellow Western journalists and even UN circles were like the proverbial three blind monkeys in excluding the reports that were being produced by Indian journalists such as Muralidhar Reddy. Reddy has indicated that \u201cthe international wire agency contingents had a closed mind to reports in\u00a0<i>The Hindu<\/i>\u00a0group of publications\u201d and, looking back today, retains the \u201cimpression [that] the reports from the western agencies barring the BBC Sinhala were very poor.\u2026 they had no extra information from either side. Most stories were alarmist [about] `civilians caught in conflict\u2019 (email note, 21 January 2014).<\/p>\n<p>5. So, who did Nessman and his kind rely on? They absorbed, as he himself tells us, the telephone messages from the Tamil medical doctors caught up in the war zone<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_edn3\">[3]<\/a><b>\u00a0<\/b>and who were, as we know, courageously and assiduously helping those wounded and dying.<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_edn4\">[4]<\/a><b>\u00a0<\/b>But these doctors were under LTTE orders and, as Dr. Shanmugarajah\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/05\/dr-veerakanthipillai-shanmugarajahs-affidavit-description-of-conditions-in-the-vanni-pocket-in-refutation-of-channel-four\/\">has recently clarified<\/a><\/span>, they were exaggerating or fabricating tales of enormous death and horror.<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_edn5\">[5]<\/a>\u00a0In line with the LTTE strategy of inciting international intervention particular emphasis was placed on the allegedly deliberate targeting of hospitals [whereas Shanmugarajah\u2019s summary shows now that the damage to the makeshift hospitals was\u00a0limited and probably collateral].<\/p>\n<p>6. Nessman tells the Americans that \u201cthe war zone is a black hole\u201d and then again that \u201cwe cannot get up there;\u201d so [all we have is] \u201crumours\u201d \u2013 which, he added, indicated \u201cmassive casualties.\u201d In brief, both then and afterwards, Nessman was party to the widespread claim that this was a \u201cwar without witnesses.\u201d Here, then prejudiced blinkers appear to be compounded by duplicity and dishonesty. But we know that he had been taken to the front earlier on two occasions. Fortunately Kanchan Prasad has snapped him on plane enroute circa 27 January 2009 and at the rear battlefront interviewing officer Ranjan Udawatta with a cameraman in tow. Thus, we are entitled to ask: \u201cwhat did he discover then?\u201d Maybe not much. But\u00a0what did Associated Press and other reporters do with their\u00a0lines of contact with SL Army officials and with fellow reporters such as Prasad and Reddy. The conjecture that flows from this set of circumstances suggests that a coterie of Western reporters in Colombo and some UN officials (including perhaps Gordon Weiss) had shut themselves off in some attic and were only on the look-out for news that would support a \u201cceasefire\u201d and \u201chumanitarian pause.\u201d They were remarkably BLIND to the fact that their humanitarian morality was plasticine in a grand LTTE strategy. As Simon Jenkins in England \u2013 going against the grain of liberal agitation over there \u2014 told his readers: \u201cin Sri Lanka a rudimentary study of the past three months of fighting would have told Miliband that\u00a0a ceasefire would be pro-Tamil, not just \u201cpro-humanitarian.\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_edn6\">[6]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>7. As part of this partisan position, this coterie in Colombo not only swallowed the tales of \u201cmassive casualties\u201d and \u201cattacks on hospitals,\u201d but gave oxygen to rumours and tales of cluster bombs and chemical weapons being deployed by the government forces. An Associated Press report referred to the evidence presented by one Alan Poston from the UN Development Action Group\u2019s mine clearance programme which alluded to scrap metal explosions injuring some children, an incident which suggested \u201cunexploded sub-munitions.\u201d Who signed this press note: none other than Ravi Nessman! Not surprisingly, he has an occasional small actor\u2019s role in the Groundviews article that took up\u00a0<i>TamilNet<\/i>\u00a0suggestions and tried to demonstrate the use of cluster bombs \u2013 even though the authors simply did not have\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/92760423\/The-Use-of-Cluster-Bombs-in-Sri-Lanka-Fact-or-Fiction\">the technical expertise<\/a>\u00a0to distinguish different types of ordinance and munitions.<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_edn7\">[7]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>8. Nessman seems to have moved on to become AP Bureau Chief in Jerusalem. He is presently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. He is, clearly, well connected and carries clout. Be forewarned .<\/p>\n<div>\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_ednref1\">[1]<\/a>\u00a0For his news report then, see Ravi<b>\u00a0<\/b>Nessman, \u201cSri Lanka\u2019s civil war rages in the shadows,\u201d 4 October 2008, <a href=\"http:\/\/usatoday30.usatoday.com\/news\/world\/2008-10-04-949219519_x.htm\">http:\/\/usatoday30.usatoday.com\/news\/world\/2008-10-04-949219519_x.htm<\/a><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_ednref2\">[2]<\/a>\u00a0Kate Adie, \u201cKate Adie of BBC: reporting on war and women at war,\u201d 2 January 2014, [originally 2006<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">] <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/02\/kate-adie-of-bbc-reporting-on-war-women-at-war\/\">http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/02\/kate-adie-of-bbc-reporting-on-war-women-at-war\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_ednref3\">[3]<\/a>\u00a0There five Ministry of Health doctors as well as about ten LTTE recruits. The latter in particular were probably hard-line Tiger enthusiasts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_ednref4\">[4]<\/a>\u00a0Michael Roberts, \u201cDedicated Medical Work Amidst the Heat of War, Death and Propaganda: In the Vanni Pocket,\u201d\u00a08 January 2014, <a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/08\/dedicated-medical-work-amidst-the-heat-of-war-death-and-propaganda-in-the-vanni-pocket-2009\/#more-11562\">http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/08\/dedicated-medical-work-amidst-the-heat-of-war-death-and-propaganda-in-the-vanni-pocket-2009\/#more-11562<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_ednref5\">[5]<\/a>\u00a0V.\u00a0Shanmugarajah,<b>\u00a0<\/b><strong>\u201c<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/05\/dr-veerakanthipillai-shanmugarajahs-affidavit-description-of-conditions-in-the-vanni-pocket-in-refutation-of-channel-four\/\">Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah\u2019s Affidavit Description of Conditions in the Vanni Pocket in Refutation of Channel\u00a0Four<\/a>,\u201d 5 January 2014,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/05\/dr-veerakanthipillai-shanmugarajahs-affidavit-description-of-conditions-in-the-vanni-pocket-in-refutation-of-channel-four\/\">http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/05\/dr-veerakanthipillai-shanmugarajahs-affidavit-description-of-conditions-in-the-vanni-pocket-in-refutation-of-channel-four\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_ednref6\">[6]<\/a>\u00a0Simon Jenkins, \u201cSimon Jenkins pulverized Miliband\u2019s assinine foreign interventions in 2009,\u201d 2011,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspensrental.com\/simon-jenkins-pulverized-milibands-assinine-foreign-interventions-in-2009\/\">http:\/\/www.aspensrental.com\/simon-jenkins-pulverized-milibands-assinine-foreign-interventions-in-2009\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/Users\/Michael%20Roberts\/Downloads\/Interview%20with%20%20Associated%20Press%20Writer%20Ravi%20Nessman%20%20on%20the%20Tavis%20Smiley%20%20Show.doc#_ednref7\">[7]<\/a>\u00a0See Citizen Silva, \u201cThe Use of Cluster Bombs in Sri Lanka: Fact or Fiction,\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/92760423\/The-Use-of-Cluster-Bombs-in-Sri-Lanka-Fact-or-Fiction\">http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/92760423\/The-Use-of-Cluster-Bombs-in-Sri-Lanka-Fact-or-Fiction<\/a>. Also see Gerald Peiris, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/30\/striving-for-evidence-of-war-crimes-cluster-bombs-and-other-dud-weaponry\/\">Striving for Evidence of War Crimes: \u201cCluster Bombs\u201d and Other Dud\u00a0Weaponry<\/a>,\u201d\u00a030 Jan 2014,<a href=\"http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/30\/striving-for-evidence-of-war-crimes-cluster-bombs-and-other-dud-weaponry\/#more-11755\">http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/30\/striving-for-evidence-of-war-crimes-cluster-bombs-and-other-dud-weaponry\/#more-11755<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":101329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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