Sir, on September 12 your paper said 98 LTTE men die in
Lanka. One week earlier you reported the death of 230 Tigers. Since I
have all your reports on Sri Lanka on file I took the trouble to look into
the issues of the previous months to find the figures of the LTTE killed as
reported in your columns. Leaving out the single and double digits, you had
given the following figures: 116 (May 31); 150 (May 23); and 458 rebels
killed between April 27 and May 4 (your report of May 4). Totalling up all
the figures, I find that you have told your readers that 1220 LTTE men have
been killed within the four and a half months between May 1 and September 12
this year.
We live in a world of instant communication, and we in London
are better acquainted with the ground situation in the north and east of Sri
Lanka than those in the country's capital from where your reports emanate.
While not wishing to dispute figures as given in your paper,
may I take the liberty (as one who has been in the journalistic field for 45
years), to suggest that you please adopt some safe journalistic norms while
reporting. Instead of merely saying 98 killed and 230 killed, your
sub-editors could either put the news within quotes, or source the
information to the Sri Lankan government, such as, "230 Tigers killed,
claims government."
Your readers might not be conscious of the fact that your
correspondents and news agencies are merely passing on to you what the
government tells them. They accept whatever you publish as authentic
information that you provide them; hence, as a news paper of some standing
it is your credibility that would be a stake. Truth being the first casualty
in war, one would prefer that The Asian Age does not become the second
casualty in the process.
