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8th November 1998

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Investigative journalists meet

By a Special Correspondent

Boston, November 5 - Thirty-four leading journalists from around the globe began a three-day meeting at the Harvard University in Boston Friday to form the world's First International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)

Their main goal is to research and write about serious issues that transcend nation-state borders, such as political corruption, the international drug or arms trade environmental degradation, international terrorism and other similar issues.

The ICIJ is a new project of the Center for public Integrity a non-profit, non-partisan investigative research organisation in Washington D.C. Membership to this new world body is by personal recommendation. The Consortium's peer reviewed membership covers leading journalists from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Iqbal Athas, Consultant Editor and Defense Correspondent of The Sunday Times is the only representative from South Asia. Athas has been recommended by a senior editorial staffer of the The New York Times for his outstanding contribution to investigative journalism in Sri Lanka. Athas is a winner of the prestigious International Press Freedom Award by the New York Based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 1994.

Athas exposed in Colombo's The Sunday Times how a ship- load of mortar bombs ordered by the Sri Lanka Army from the state owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) fell into the hands of their foes the Tamil Tiger rebels. The Colombo government first denied the reports. But continued exposure by Athas forced the government to acknowledge the loss and appoint a team of police detectives to investigate the matter.

Other South East Asian journalists include Marites Vitug (Philippines), Nate Thayer (Thailand) and Andreas Harsono (Indonesia).

How the ICIJ emerged and what it portends is better described in an article in the The Times (London) by veteran British investigative journalist and author Philip Knightly the consortium's European Representative. Knightly is better known for his exposures and the subsequent book on the British spy who worked for the Soviet Union, Kim Philby. Some excerpts of the Times account published this year under the headline "journalism with teeth says:

"The summer night in 1995 in London, Chuck Lewis an American Journalist who looks like Clark Kent, outlined to me what seemed a wooly dream - he wanted to form an international team of investigative journalists to tackle the world's really big stories.

"Three years later the International Consortium of journalists (ICIJ) is a reality. It has offices in Washington, a two year start-up budget of $ 400,000 (£ 220,000) with more promised... Over dinner that night in 1995 Lewis and I agreed that investigative journalism in Britain and the United States appeared to be on its last legs. Lewis said this was one reason he had left the television programme '60 minutes' where he had been a producer.

"I felt that the press had arrived late on the scene in a spate of scandals such as Iran-Contra and the savings and loan business" I told him that it was much the same in Britain I believed that the great days of insight, The Sunday Times investigative team in the 1960s and 1970s of which I had been a member, were unlikely to return. Stories such as those on thalidomide, which deformed 8,000 babies, Philby, the British spy who worked for KGB; the investigation into the safety of DC 10 aircraft after the Turkish airlines crash in France and an examination of the tax avoidance schemes of the Vestyes, one of Britian's richest families, would today be considered too costly and legally dangerous.

"We agreed that in the wake of the technological revolution in newspapers production the power source has changed - accountants had taken over. Suddenly journalists had to show that they were cost effective - how many column inches did you write this week?

"In this atmosphere I said, it would be a brave executive who would dare tell management: I want to detach five or six journalists for an investigation into William Bigbucks. It'll take about six months. They'll need a large travel budget, and Bigbucks is certain to sue, so we'd better set aside a few hundred thousands for legal costs, If we get it wrong and lose a libel action it could cost another million or so, Oh and we might not come up with anything worth publishing.

"Yet unlikely as it seemed by 1995 this is roughly what Harold Evan's The Sunday Times faced when it began investigation into the late Robert Maxwell's empire.

"So I would have written off Chuck Lewis's dream as just that if he had not already set up such a project. In 1990 he left 60 minutes and in a Washington office started the Centre for Public Integrity, a non -profit, non- partisan organisation devoted to public service journalism. As he explains I tried to imagine the ideal set-up, a group of investigative journalists, relatively unfettered by time or space limitations taking one or two years to explore and expose national issues of the day.

"Today the centre has a full time staff of 25 and has usurped the role of newspapers and television in the United States as the fount of investigative journalism. The tale of the White House providing bed and breakfast for campaign contributors, the exposure of monied interest behind the campaign to defeat Clinton's universal healthcare plan and The Buying of the President, the seminal study of special interests behind the presidential candidates were all the work of the Centre for public integrity. Yet the centre is not by any traditional definition a news organisation. It has a budget of $ 1.5 million a year largely provided by charitable foundations. It does its investigations with a few reporters and researchers and a large number of journalism students working for pocket-money. It tackles two or three investigations a year and hand over its report to grateful newspapers and television stations for little or no cost. Its influence grows steadily.

"Lewis wants the ICIJ to be the centre's international arm, to take over ground being vacated by news organisations as they close their overseas bureau and reduce foreign coverage. "How can we write about international arms and drug trades,political corruption or environmental degradation without information on these subjects from different parts of the world'?" Lewis says...."

Opening the ICIJ's inaugural sessions at the Cronkite Graduation Centre, ( named after the well known CBS anchorman of yesteryears) Bill Kovach Curator Neiman Foundation for journalism at Harvard University delivered the welcome address, Kovach, is a former Washington bureau Chief of The New york Times and Editor of the Atlanta Constitution. Later delegates discussed pressing issues from their regions and safeguarding sources of information.

Yesterday ( Saturday) former journalist Chris Simpson, a professor at American University and Director of Satellite Imagery and News Media spoke on how reporters can use satellite imagery in investigation reporting. ICIJ members are to use electronic communications to communicate with one another with cyberspace becoming their main work station.

Taking part in a discussion on "How to Survive the Dangers of Investigative Reporting" was Sri Lanka's Iqbal Athas and Panama's Gustavo Gorriti. They were joined in by Joel Simon of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The inaugural conference ends today, among other matters, with a discussion on ways to use the internent and data bases in investigative reporting.

Some of the leading personalities on the ICIJ Advisory Board are: James Megregor Burns ( Political Scientist and Pulitzer Prize winning Biographer) Hodding, Carter (former State Department spokesman and Knight Chair in public Affairs Journalism, University of Maryland) Charles Ogletree ( Professor of law and director of Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, Arthur Schesinger (author and professor) and Willian Julius Wilson (Professor of Social Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government).


From the Blue Corner

Economy good, says your own man!

By Paaksikaya

The week that was, as we all know, was Budget week. And, confounding all prophets of doom including my unseen friend Viruddha Paakshikaya, the People's Alliance presented another successful Budget much to the satisfaction of the people.

Professor G.L Peiris was at his brilliant best. He may be a professor of law by training and he may be slightly stooped in demeanour. But, on Thursday he proved why he is held in such high esteem by politicians and academics alike.

His oratory masterly; his presentation exquisite and his temperament excellent. There was no table thumping. And there was no vitriolic rhetoric like in the bad old days when a UNP Finance Minister tore his little grey hair and attacked his political opponents.

I remember well those days when Ronald Joseph Godfrey de Mel spoke and spoke and spoke because he was getting live coverage on TV. Then R. Premadasa became President and appointed a non- plussed Dingiri Banda Wijetunga as his Finance Minister who had to read the Budget speech.

It was then all over in half an hour with D.B racing along without stopping at commas and full-stops. Premadasa is reported to have said "Oka wathura bibby kiyanna Ona ne! (You don't have to be sipping water and labouring over it!")

Professor Peiris clearly spelt out the fact that Sri Lanka's economy has withstood the vagaries of the turbulent global economic climate that has rocked, rolled and wrecked many of the other Asian economies.

It has been prudent economic planning by none other than our President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Professor Peiris who have steadied the ship of state in the stormy seas of the speculative world of business.

Now what has the UNP to say to this, Virudda Paakshikaya? Last week you boasted about the open economy that your leader J.R Jayewardene introduced. Some of your partymen and even you criticise us for allegedly ruining this open economy.

Our privatisation is full of corrupt deals, you say and claim that foreign investors have no faith in our government or our economic policies. Your former Finance Minister has been quoted as calling the Budget that of a dying Government. But what does your own so-called "Economic Advisor" (and sometimes self-appointed" "international Affairs Advisor") to your own leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has to say?

He says the economy under the People's Alliance government is booming. It is doing well and we as Sri Lankans have to be proud that very soon we will have the honour of being among the "group of 15" - the fifteen fast developing and up and coming nations in the world. This advisor about whose American connections referred to earlier has said in an article translated for a Sunday Sinhala Language newspaper that President Bill Clinton has ordered his Treasury to immediately summon a meeting of the "G-7" (Group of Seven) Industrialized Nations and the Group of "15".

So, says your advisor we as Sri Lankans should be happy to be in such exalted company.

And, why not, Viruddha Paakshikaya? Here is your Harvard educated advisor to Ranil Wickremesinghe certifying that the PA's handling of the economy under the bold and wise leadership of the President and Professor Peiris has been so good that we have been included in the Group of 15.

So, how would anyone else in the UNP - Ranil Wickremesinghe, Viruddha Paaskshikaya or anyone else say that we have not handled the economy well?

Here is international recognition of the fact and certified by an "internal affairs economic advisor" to Ranil Wickremesinghe himself. We, for our part couldn't have found a better defender for the PA's handling of the economy.

We must thank our MP Mahinda Amara- weera for bringing this out in Parliament on September 24 this year.

Let me quote from Hansard. This is what he says, translated, almost verbatim to English:

"Mr. Deputy Chairman, Despite whatever allegations made by the UNP today, Mr. Milinda Moragoda who now functions as an advisor to the UNP has written an article titled "a breath of fresh air to the economy" (aarthikayata nawa husmak) in last week's Sunday Lankadeepa.

He is no ordinary person, Mr. Deputy Chairman. Some day, may be even in 20 years - he hopes to be the Finance Minister when the UNP forms a government. This article contains his views about this country's economy (Interruptions).

Yes. The economic advisor to the UNP. A person who is ready to be a Cabinet Minister when the UNP forms a government. I would like to bring to the attention of the Deputy Chairman certain facts in his article titled "a breath of fresh air to the economy". This article talks of 15 emerging nations.

Three or four months ago, Sri Lanka has also been included among the 15 countries with emerging economies. We as Sri Lankans should be proud of this. Many more details are given in this article, Mr. Deputy Chairman; I do not have the time to read all of it.

Yet, what the UNP says today is the prices of goods have increased and that the people have economic hardships. But what Milinda Moragoda states in his article is that the price of rice, vegetables and fish have fallen over that of the previous week, and that economic hardships for the people are less now.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am stating what has been said by Mr Moragoda of the UNP. "Whatever allegations are made by the UNP today, they know the People's Alliance government has thought about the economic hardships of the poor people and that they have devised a plan of economic management. They know that in their conscience".

So much for that Viruddha Paakshikaya

Then you attack the private sector initiative on the ethnic issue and quote instances where some firms have got advantages from the ruling party. You claim some of them don't even pay EPF. Don't they all, Viruddha Paakshikaya? Show me a honest businessman and I will show you a Pink Elephant.

Let's be honest then. An honest businessman will not thrive in this or any country. Political patronage is universal. How did some people become millionaires in the New World, America?

When the country was opening up, a railroad system was being built. Front men of local councillors who had prior information of which way the railroad was going purchased bare land and then sold it to the Railway Department for massive amounts.

The Railway Department of course was financed by taxes paid by the people. That has been the"system" in all capitalist economies and, here in Sri Lanka in more recent times that is how the UNP gave contracts, especially under R. Premadasa.

Let me take just one example, Viruddha Paakshikaya. Under the UNP's Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC) R. Premadasa started what was then known as a one-stop-shop system. A would-be investor would come to the GCEC and get his land, electricity, water supply, quarters etc., all attended to under one roof.

A particular law firm had almost all the investors "channelled to them" through high-ups in the GCEC. The legal fees was a cool one million rupees.

Why I cite this as an example out of so many examples I can cite is because some of these people have wormed their way into the inner coterie of Ranil Wikremesinghe himself.

They are very much in the "Nawa" UNP picture as much as they were in the "Parana" UNP that was kicked out of office in 1994 for corruption, among other things.

The modus operandi now-a-days is to get your Mr. Clean for dinner and "show-off" how close the man is to your party leader. The invitees are told they will get an opportunity to meet the future President!

Your leader may not realize it, Viruddha Paakshikaya but it is on a "Dinner Now, Pay later" basis. Cash is collected for party funds".

So, my dear Viruddha Paakshikaya this is what happened through the ages. It is not something invented by the UNP or inherited by the PA.

Now, Viruddha Paakshikaya just as I am getting into stride I received a telephone call from The Sunday Times sub-Editor who says to "keep the copy short" as the Times is filling up with advertisements.

While I'm compelled to oblige, it equally gives me a great deal of satisfaction that not only is the Chief Economic Advisor to Ranil Wickremesinghe (though some say he is self-appointed) saying the economy under the PA is doing very well, even The Sunday Times is filling up with advertisements. So, take it from me, Viruddha Paakshikaya, the economy is indeed doing well.

And, to use a recent American political slogan on the "Americanized" UNP" - 'it is the economy, stupid', that will be the decider at the next election.

Now, you don't think that your economic advisor is stupid, do you Viruddha Paakshikaya? But, do tell me if you do!

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