As part of an ‘Engage Sri Lanka’ campaign, the Sri Lankan government will hand out a 222 page book to brief journalists attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Colombo.

The book named ‘Corrupted Journalism’ allegedly produces findings from the study of the work of Channel 4 on documenting human rights abuses and crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka.

See below for extracts from an Engage Sri Lanka’s press release on their ‘Corrupted Journalism: Channel 4 and Sri Lanka’ media pack:

“Channel 4 claimed its programmes were forensic in their approach. Corrupted Journalism: Channel 4 and Sri Lanka, shows that Channel 4’s programmes were unprofessional, prejudiced and inaccurate, both in the content presented, the claims made as well as in the material and facts they omitted.”

“Channel 4’s assertion that up to 40,000 civilians may have died in the last moth of the war was plucked out of the air. Corrupted Journalism: Channel 4 and Sri Lanka shows that the claim is statistically and methodologically impossible.”

“The claims made by Channel 4 regarding Sri Lanka should provide a wake-up call for developing countries. They provide yet another example of self-selecting, white western elite, on the basis of flawed ‘advocacy’ propaganda, seeking to interfere in the internal affairs of a developing country emerging from decades of civil war. Channel 4’s self-indulgence is undermining Sri Lanka’s peace and reconciliation process and prejudicing on-going legitimate investigations into the events of May 2009. Equally disturbing is these kangaroo court trials by western media appear to be shaping aspects of western foreign policy.”