Posts Tagged ‘Sri Lanka’
July 9th, 2012
Sri Lankan defence minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa
reportedly verbally abused Sunday Leader editor Frederica Jansz during a telephone interview last week. Jansz had asked the minister if he was aware that an aircraft scheduled to fly to Zurich was to be changed to accommodate a personal friend. During the
conversation Rajapaksa told Jansz people “will kill you — you dirty fucking shit journalist”, and threatened to sue the
newspaper if they ran the story. The
Sunday Leader won the Index/Guardian Freedom of Expression award for journalism in 2009.
March 23rd, 2012
Sri Lankan journalists have been
dubbed “traitors” by state television, following the adoption of a
UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for an investigation into the country’s alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during its war with Tamil separatists. After the passing of the motion on Wednesday, state television said journalists in support of it were helping the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels and “betraying the motherland.” The broadcaster added that, although the journalists who took part in Council sessions were not named, Sri Lankan state television “repeatedly zooms in on thinly disguised photographs of them, promising to give their names soon and ‘expose more traitors.’”
August 4th, 2011
On Tuesday it was reported that
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa
threatened the chairman of
The Sunday Leader,
Lal Wickrematunge, by phone on 19 July. In response to an article that claimed China had given the president and his son millions of dollars to be used “at their discretion”, Rajapaksa
reportedly told Wickrematunge, “you can attack me politically, but if you attack me personally, I will know how to attack you personally too.” The Sunday Leader is Sri Lanka’s only independent English-language newspaper, and has long been targeted by the government. The paper claims the 2009 murder of its former head,
Lasantha Wickematunge (Lal’s brother), was never investigated fully.
August 1st, 2011
Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, editor of the Tamil-language daily Uthayan, was on Friday evening
beaten by unidentified men with iron bars in the northern Sri Lankan city of Jaffna. Having been rushed to hospital with critical head injuries, he remains unconscious.
Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) says that while physical attacks against journalists have largely fallen since 2010, threats and acts of intimidation continue to be common in Sri Lanka. In May, Kuhanathan’s colleague, reporter S. Kavitharan, was attacked by armed men as he made his way to work.
June 22nd, 2011
A bid for greater media freedom put forward by opposition parties in
Sri Lanka has been rejected by the ruling party led by
President Mahinda Rajapakse. The
United People’s Freedom Alliance, which enjoys a two-thirds majority, voted against the proposed Freedom of Information Bill. The bill was presented after opposition members accused the government of trying to stifle media freedom. A total of at least 18 journalists and media employees have been
killed in the past decade.
April 26th, 2011
Police on Monday (25 April) arrested a journalist working for the independent website, Lanka eNews. Shantha Wijeysooria was
arrested at the website’s offices in Colombo for alleged contempt of court. The charges relate to an April 19 article which allegedly
defamed the court’s honour by suggesting that it was holding two suspects in custody in contravention of the attorney general’s written order to release them. The paper issued an apology on 22 April.
November 10th, 2010
Sri Lankan newspapers have refused to participate in a police campaign to
track down people who have starred in pornographic films. The crackdown is part of a broader crusade against “moral crimes”, including “
indecent” advertising on film billboards. The police want newspapers to run mugshots of
over 80 people but all the national daily newspapers bar one have
refused to print the photographs. Those actors caught face six months in prison and a 90 dollar fine.
May 7th, 2010
Mervyn Silva has resigned as media minister just 13 days after he was
appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He has been replaced by former defence minister Keheliya Rambukwella,
Reporters Sans Frontières claim like Silva, Rambukwella has a reputation for using violence and intimidation to silence journalists.
