This document discusses freedom of expression in post-war Sri Lanka. It notes that mainstream media focuses on reporting government development projects and cricket scores, while underreporting human rights issues like violence against minorities. New media has helped fill these reporting gaps by bearing witness to events and archiving information. Technologies like blogs, social media, and mobile apps have allowed citizens to record and share stories that might otherwise go unreported or erased. While facing pushback from the state, these new media platforms have become important channels for discussing inconvenient truths and holding authorities accountable.

1. What remains a good idea: Freedom of Expression in Sri Lanka
Sanjana Hattotuwa
Editor, Groundviews | TED Fellow Alumn

2. Post-war media “freedom”
Especially for Tamil journalists

3. Focus on the State & sports
Government led infrastructure development
& cricket scores

4. Under-reported / Un-reported
The human cost of development

5. Under-reported / UN-reported / Erased
Inconvenient truths

6. IDPs of Seeniyamottai (September ’12), Rally against Weliveriya
violence (August ’13), Aluthgama (June ’14)

7. Custodial murder
Ganesan Nimalaruban’s mother

8. State complicity
In religious extremism

9. Police shootings
Covering up State brutality

10. A necessary bifurcation post-war
Between patriots & traitors

11. Failure of MSM
Supine, seeking favour, unprofessional, dependent on
advertisements, under fire, risk averse

12. Pushback from State around New Media
National Security Threats, Dogs, Terrorists, Murderers

13. How can technology help?
Bearing witness within cycles of violence

14. Recording for posterity
Wordpress, Blogger,
Facebook, Twitter,
Google+, YouTube,
Vimeo, Bundlr,
Storify, Vimeo,
SoundCloud, Flickr,
Infogr.am, Typeform,
Google Maps, Google
Earth, Timeline.js,
Tiki Toki, Ushahidi
CrowdMap,
OpenStreetMap, SMS,
Mobile Apps, HTML5

15. A safe space
Civility, agree to disagree

16. Curation
• ~7.3 million words over 50,000
comments
• ~5.8 million words over 2,900 articles
• no break in eight years

17. Twitter
From peripheral to primary channel of news

18. Recording human rights
#unlk at 22nd HRC sessions

19. Facebook
Reaching over 26,000 and beyond

20. The end of war
Zero civilian casualties vs. ground realities

21. Mass graves
From 2009 to end of 2011

22. Bearing witness
Impeachment of Chief Justice

23. Moving Images
Photography to capture change | www.movingimages.asia

24. Mediated
Using art to shape perceptions |
saskiafernandogallery.com/
exhibitionsmain.php?id=22.

25. 30 Years Ago
New media to capture Black July anti-Tamil pogrom | www.30yearsago.asia

26. Short & Sweet
Using fiction to interrogate a violent past

27. Citizen archivist
Archiving the ephemeral for posterity | http://sitesatrisksl.wordpress.com

28. • Army (1)
• Berghof Foundation (2)
• CaFFE – Election Monitoring (1)
• Citizens Commission (1)
• Citizens.lk (1)
• COI (1)
• Colombo Art Biennale 2014 (1)
• Colomboscope (1)
• Cost of War (1)
• CPA (1)
• Dept. of Census and Statistics (1)
• Development (1)
• Eastern Revival (1)
• FMM (1)
• Groundviews (1)
• IIGEP (2)
• InfoShare (1)
• Jayantha Dhanapala (1)
• JVP (1)
• LLRC Action Plan (1)
• LLRC NAP (1)
• LTTE Dept. of IR (1)
• LTTE Peace Secretariat (2)
• MCNS (1)
• Media at risk (1)
• Milinda Moragoda (1)
• National Freedom Front (1)
• National Housing Policy (1)
• NESOHR (1)
• Official Languages Commission (1)
• PACT (1)
• Political parties (2)
• Regaining Sri Lanka (1)
• SCOPP (3)
• SLPI & SLCJ (1)
• Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF)
(1)
• Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission
(1)
• Tamil National Alliance (1)
• Tsunami (1)
• UNF-LTTE Peace Process (1)
• Vikalpa (1)
• Blogs of Army commanders
during 2009

29. Their stories matter
Tech secondary

30. Thank you
All photos via Vikalpa Flickr, www.flickr.com/vikalpasl