Many years ago, when the boot was on another foot, Aththa (truth or pravda), the Sri Lanka Communist Party´s daily newspaper, railed at the press censorship imposed by the United National Party (UNP) government of the time by carrying vast blank spaces across its pages. Inside each white space was a one-line notice to readers: 'This news was eaten by dogs.'
While this drama was being played, Parliament was buzzing one day with the rumour that a devaluation of the rupee was imminent. Pieter Keuneman, a Communist MP who once wrote leaders for the Daily News, phoned the Aththa number and suggested the next day´s front page headline: 'The rupee too has been eaten by dogs.'
Many moons have passed since those heady days. Mr Keuneman is no more a member of the house he adorned for 30 years with trenchant wit, Aththa is defunct, and the Communist Party is a partner in the ruling People´s Alliance (PA) government. However, the censor is very much in business at the Information Department. Although there is no reference to dogs, many newspapers continue to protest at the censorship with blank spaces scattered across their pages. Predictably, the censorship currently in force relates to military news. It has been imposed under the Emergency Regulations and has been implemented in a manner that has attracted a great deal of flak. For one thing, sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander. With the Competent Authority responsible for the censorship compelled to delegate his functions to various officials, the media has been flinging examples of copy permitted to one paper by one official being denied to a second by another.
The government realised early on that subjecting the Colombo-based foreign media to the censorship would be a fruitless exercise. After a desultory foray in that direction, the restrictions are now confined to the local press. Gory pictures of battles on BBC World and CNN continue to be electronically tripped, but anybody with a shortwave radio can access the audio version of the same. Many Indian and other foreign newspapers carrying uncensored reports of the fighting in the north circulate, and capsules from the Reuter wire are available on the screens of those who buy the agency´s financial service.