Action Alert Archive

Repression of dissenting media becomes publicly visible

May 2, 2007

More and more reports are showing the press being denied access in all parts of Sri Lanka, not just war-affected areas. Others mention journalists forced into self-censoring their papers for fear of reprisal. Truthful reports of the ground situation may not ever reach the citizens nor the international community. This may have a lasting effect in future elections or referenda. It is absolutely critical that information is reported as accurately and objectively as possible.

The Sri Lankan government has recently begun a witch-hunt against all its critics using the label "tiger". Posters have come up around Colombo stating: "Peace Tigers, Media Tigers, Left Tigers - Recognize Them, Destroy Them, Save Our Motherland!" The implication is clear -- dissenting media voices would be the "Media Tigers" (while NGOs, peace activists, and labor unions would also be targets of repression). Women's rights groups, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and many others heavily condemned the government after Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse allegedly threatened the life of Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror editor, Champika Liyanarachchi. British ambassador Dominick Chilcott was censured by Rajapakse on 19 Apr 2007 for trying to intervene Liyanarachchi's behalf. IFJ President Christopher Warren called it an "another outrageous example of Sri Lankan officials unashamedly seeking to threaten the media into submission." Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, Champika Ranawaka, received condemnation for an 18 Jan 2007 interview in Ravaya in which he called for the "elimination of those ... aiding and abetting the cause of the LTTE, including all pro-peace civil society activists and media activists."

Several Tamil papers, including the popular Jaffna-based Uthayan, have witnessed flagrant attacks including assassinations to their reporters. On April 29, Selvarajah Rajivarman, a popular young journalist for the paper, was shot and killed while gathering news. His death eerily comes exactly a day after the two-year anniversary of the assassination of Taraki Sivaram, a world-renowned journalist whose death still remains yet unsolved. Many of Uthayan's warehouses that hold printing equipment have also been burned down. All kinds of media freedoms have been denied.

According to the Free Media Movement (FMM) and the IFJ, three notable journalists including a Reuter's photographer, a freelance reporter, and the president of the Sri Lankan Tamil Media Alliance have all fled the country due to serious threats to their lives (IFJ, 10 Jan 2007). The FMM further noted that two Sunday Observer editors and a journalist for the Sinhalese-language Silumina were all interrogated following their reports on the country's defense issues. Reporters Without Borders recently commented that the transporting of supplies and ink to Jaffna was also necessary for the region's newspapers to continue publishing. Jaffna's daily papers, Uthayan, Valampuri, and Yarl Thinakkural, have all been forced to print limited copies of four-page papers as opposed to their regular 20-page papers due to the embargo on newsprint and ink to the North and East.

Journalists should be able to spread the news easily and equitably to all parts of the world, and everyone should have the right to know the truth. We ask the United States, an avowed defender of freedom in the world, to openly reprimand Sri Lanka for denying its citizens the basic rights necessary for a free and functional democracy. If the Sri Lankan government denies freedoms to the press, decisions affecting the future of peace in Sri Lanka may change adversely due to the potential for misinformation.