When Citizens Turn on Journalists

Nalaka Gunawardene describes the disturbing trend of vigilantism against professional and, particularly, citizen journalists. He reports that Sri Lanka's state-owned radio and television stations have been heavily guarded by police and army, due to their being targets for Tamil Tigers in their separatist war for a quarter century. Attacks on journalists and media organisations, as he reports, "have increased several fold in the past two years, and the World Association of Newspapers ranked Sri Lanka as the third deadliest place for journalists (six killed in 2007) - behind only Iraq and Somalia." As stated here, even more disturbing, authorities and citizens are reported to be turning on reporters, photojournalists, and citizen journalists in public places.


The author reports how a journalist was apprehended by parents from a school's civil defence committee and turned over to soldiers for taking photos near a school. The incident, according to the author, shows the rise of citizens turning vigilantes, that is, paranoid in their suspicions of each other. The paranoia extends to anyone with a still or video camera, which hampers the work of photojournalists and videographers who must cover unfolding events wherever they happen. Difficult as it is for professional journalists, citizen journalists face greater difficulties without government-issued accreditation, according to the author. They lack the supports of professional journalists including official accreditation, trade unions, and pressure groups to safeguard their interests. Since the tsunami of 2004, "citizen journalists are increasingly playing a major role in meaningfully reporting deaths, the humanitarian fallout and hidden social costs of violent conflict that are often glossed over or sensationalised by the mainstream media." However, there is political and civil pressure, coupled with policed action, to indicate that information tools, such as laptops, handicams, and digital cameras, are seen as a threat to public security. A blogger posed the question, "Do we have to have a camera license like a gun license of yesteryear?"

The over-regulation of citizens' access to information in various regimes is not new. However, the ironic turn, as demonstrated here, is the notion that citizen journalism is seen by citizens as a threat to their civil liberties, rather than a means of protection of both civil liberties and media freedom.