Is The-Hindu Anti Tamil in Srilanka??

[Chappani]

[tscii:d14f035628]Hi Friends,

There are lots of things happening in Srilanka against Tamils - the state sponsored terrorism, the abductions, the killing, bombing of schools etc. We read this news in BBC, Hindustan times, Tehelka.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2097794,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/08/stories/2007060804041300.htm

But if you see Hindu, the paper from Tamilnad, it never gives a realistic picture of what’s happening there in Srilanka . Why is this so, the foreign news is realistic in what’s happening there, whereas a paper in our country which has very close cultural ties with the Tamils there is against them and siding with an unfair Srilankan government and coming out with some news which is comlpetly out of reality, this is very surprising.

Today all the papers of reported that Tamils have been sent out from Colombo to north and east and they have compared this to Holocaust and ethnic cleansing. But Hindu has come out with a version "Srilanka sends back Jobless Tamil youth back from Colombo". You can see in BBC they have this news covered with photos of women young and very old being sent back, which means they just want to throw out Tamils and this jobless youth title is just a cover up.

News papers need to be more responsible and should showcase reality to the public, but what is Hindu doing?? coming out with a version completely out of touch with reality, and sliding with a government which is condemned worldwide for Human rights excess and ethnic cleansing...

Please post your views..

Thanks,

Srini
[/tscii:d14f035628]

[crazy]

Today all the papers of reported that Tamils have been sent out from Colombo to north and east and they have compared this to Holocaust and ethnic cleansing. But Hindu has come out with a version "Srilanka sends back Jobless Tamil youth back from Colombo". You can see in BBC they have this news covered with women young and very old being sent back, which means they just want to throw out Tamils and this jobless youth title is just a cover up.

did they :shock:
i read BBC,,,,,and others....wasnt aware of Hindu :o
:sigh2:

[kannannn]

Much as it has influenced my thinking process and beliefs, sadly I have to agree with that other side of "The Hindu". Have you noticed that, even "Letters to the Editor", an independent space to express the readers' views, is devoid of any opinion supporting the cause of Tamils? It is hard to believe that none has written such a letter to them. The only possibility I can think of is the deliberate black out of such letters. Sad, very sad indeed :(

[P_R]

It is hard to believe that none has written such a letter to them. The only possibility I can think of is the deliberate black out of such letters. Sad, very sad indeed :( The average Hindu reader (I guess) has a rather conservative opinion about terrorism in general and is nebulous of any opinion that would seem to be in support of the LTTE. So it is not unlikely that the Hindu did not receive any letters of that sort.

But I have a read a few bland opinion columns by guest writers, as poorly informed as yours truly, writing centrist articles about the peace process which tell us next to nothing about the situation. N.Ram receiving the SL government's civilian honour a few years back further dilutes the Hindu's stand in the issue.

If not anything else, one can give Hindu consistency points. For all their leftist stances they have not been sympathetic to the PWG or other such outfits in India.

[podalangai]

The LTTE and the PWG are hardly comparable. :roll:

Anyway, the Hindu has been a strident opponent of the LTTE and of the very idea of an independent Eelam for a very long time. As a result, they avoid printing anything which could conceivable lead to any modicum of support for the LTTE or the idea of Eelam, even if that means putting a spin on all news out of Sri Lanka. Which means, basically, that you shouldn't trust anything they - or Frontline, or any other publication of that group - say about the conflict in Sri Lanka.

(For example, I remember an editorial where N. Ram, discussing the PMK's views on the Sri Lankan conflict, confidently declared that the PMK was a fringe group which would soon vanish. And their fondness for reporting that Prabhakaran has been killed. And so on.)

[P_R]

The Hindu has been quite a let-down for faithful readers like me struggling to form an opinion here.
The LTTE and the PWG are hardly comparable. Rolling Eyes I brought up PWG to show how the Hindu isn't tolerant of groups that ostensibly takes up arms for causes that the paper may ideologically relate to.

[podalangai]

The LTTE and the PWG are hardly comparable. Rolling Eyes I brought up PWG to show how the Hindu isn't tolerant of groups that ostensibly takes up arms for causes that the paper may ideologically relate to.

They have, however, regularly supported the Palestinians - even though they have taken up arms. I have tried to point out the inconsistency in their stance on more than one occassion, but predictably, my letters were not published.

Interestingly, someone I know once wrote an opinion piece for them about India's miserable treatment of Tamil refugees and how it arguably violates our own constitution. This, too, was never printed.

And this is what is really disappointing about the Hindu's coverage of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict. It is possible to both be anti-LTTE and present an honest account of what's happening in Sri Lanka. The Economist has a special report on the conflict in its latest issue, which is an excellent example - it's far from being pro-LTTE, but it presents an extremely unbiased account of the conflict:
http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9299003

The Hindu, in contrast, makes no attempt to be balanced. Unfortunately for those of us who grew up thinking that it set the standards for journalism in India.

[P_R]

[tscii:d82c3c2064]Thanks for the good article, podalangai.
Hindu's inability to be objective here, apart from being extremely disappointing - is in a way a victory for the LTTE, because it seems to acknowledge their 'lone representative' claims.

“The Sinhalese authorities are not willing to talk to moderates,” says Suresh Premachandran, a parliamentary member of the Tamil National Alliance, who has several times escaped assassination attempts by the Tigers. “They only understand the LTTE.” This is the most disturbing part of the whole article, simply because it applies to a wide variety of situations.[/tscii:d82c3c2064]