News Broadcasting
‘Disturbing’ comments from Lankan government, even as one more scribe disappears
NEW DELHI: Following reports of the disappearance of another journalist, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed its growing concern over the worsening situation in Sri Lanka, particularly in view of the ‘disturbing statements on the state of the media’ by the government.
According to IFJ affiliate the Free Media Movement (FMM), Subramaniam Ramachandran, a correspondent for the dailies Yarl Thinakkural and Valampuri, has been missing from the disturbed northern peninsula Jaffna since 15 February, when he did not return home from work.
“The IFJ has grave fears for the safety of Ramachandran, who has been missing now for more than 11 days, especially in the light of the shocking situation in Jaffna where abductions and retaliatory killings occur all too regularly,” IFJ President Christopher Warren said. The IFJ represents 500,000 journalists in more than 115 countries.
According to the FMM, 802 persons have disappeared in Jaffna peninsula since January 2005, and 15 people have been gunned down by unknown assailants and nine have been abducted in February alone.
The IFJ has joined the FMM and four other journalists’ organisations – the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, the Federation of Media Employees Trade Union, the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Foundation and the Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists Alliance – in condemning statements from the Sri Lankan Environment and Natural Resources Minister Champika Ranawaka, which basically advocated brutal suppression of democratic dissent, and the use of extra-judicial methods if necessary.
According to the journalists’ organisations, the Minister in a statement in Sinhala to the Ravaya newspaper on the February 18 said: “People will die, what can we do about it. Are you asking us to leave those alive? Those bastards are traitors. We can’t do any thing because of wild donkey freedom in this country, if those can’t be dealt with existing laws we know how to do it. If we can’t suppress those bastards with the law we need to use any other ways and means.”
The IFJ president said: “We are frankly speechless that a minister of government, who reportedly is in close contact with the president, could publicly show such total disrespect for human rights and blatantly disown all democratic principles.”
According to the five organisations, the minister has identified many prominent human rights activists, journalists and civil society leaders as terrorists in the past.
“This is really going too far. We echo the demands from the Sri Lankan journalists’ organisations, for clarification from the government on what is essentially hate speech from a member of parliament,” Warren said.
Furthermore, the IFJ is shocked by comments from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on 10 February, indicating he provided television and radio licenses to the JVP (People’s Liberation Front) to recognise the support they provided during his election campaign.
“For a head of state to say something as irresponsible and compromising as this, is a further indication of the Sri Lankan government’s retreat from democracy,” Warren said.
The FMM has written to the Ministry of Defence demanding an amendment to an article published on its website on 9 February which gave false and misleading information about the journalists’ organisation.
The FMM first contacted the Ministry on 12 February asking for their immediate action, and again on 19 February, regarding a story written by Walter Jayawardhana, which incorrectly indicated the organisation had requested the release of three arrested journalists, who worked for the trade union publication Akuna, and were organising a protest campaign for their freedom.
The website also contained an archived photo which bore no relation to the article and portrayed the FMM in a misleading manner.
“The IFJ supports the FMM in its attempts to gain a retraction from the ministry; the article is incorrect and could potentially be used to disparage the organisation and its members,” Warren said.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
