04 May 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
President Mahinda Rajapaska has pardoned a journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of supporting terrorism. Tyssainayagam, then editor of North-Eastern Monthly magazine, was first arrested in March 2008. He was accused of conspiring to cause ethnic violence through his articles. The Tamil journalist, who wrote about the effects of the separatist conflict on the ethnic Tamil minority, was convicted in August 2009. The government’s pardon announcement was timed to coincide with World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.
28 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
The newly elected President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, appointed Mervyn Silva as the deputy minister for media and information on Friday. Silva is a politician with a notorious reputation for physically and verbally attacking journalists and other members of the press, including one incident in December 2008 where he and a large group of men stormed a television station and assaulted its news director. The appointment angered Reporters sans frontières, it asked “In what country do you appoint an arsonist to put out fires?”
16 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
BBC World Service has restarted its FM broadcasts with SLBC, the Sri Lankan national broadcaster after a 14-month long absence. In a press release yesterday, Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC Global News guaranteed that programmes in English, Sinhala, and Tamil will have uninterrupted broadcasting, and that the BBC will remain true to “specific editorial values that include impartiality, editorial independence and seeking a relevant range of views on any topic”.
31 Mar 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Last Monday, hundreds of protestors attacked the offices of the Maharaja Television offices in Colombo, injuring four workers and smashing many windows and cars. The incident is over hip-hop artist Akon’s latest music video “Sexy Bitch”, which depicts images of bikini–clad women dancing in front of a statue of Buddha, causing offense to the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese population. Akon, due to play a concert in Sri Lanka in April, has been refused entry into the country as a result of the uproar.
