Action Alert Archive

Media in Sri Lanka are Victims of State Terror

August 31, 2007

A journalist from the Tamil daily Thinakkural was attacked with acid when leaving a hospital in Colombo on August 15, causing serious injuries to his face, chest and legs. He was being treated in the hospital for an arm injury he sustained after being attacked by the Sri Lankan Air Force, according to an interview he gave to the University of California - Los Angeles's AsiaMedia. This was his fifth time being attacked. He is one of many journalists caught in the escalating violence that has prompted Reporters Without Borders to declare Sri Lanka to be one of the most dangerous regions in the world for the press. The report attributed the violence to government-backed "death squads."

Tamil journalists are deliberately attacked throughout Sri Lanka, especially in areas with a higher military presence such the northern Jaffna, according to AsiaMedia. Last May, two staff members of Jaffna district's most popular daily newspaper, Uthayan, were killed after five intruders opened fire in their office, one of many attacks upon this newspaper. One member said, "Despite our police protection since the May 2006 attack, everyone knows the paramilitaries can strike whenever they want.... We're victims of terror." There have been no serious investigations into these attacks despite promises from the Sri Lankan government, according to Reporters Without Borders.

For the past 3 years, high profile attacks on media, including the assassination of D. Sivaram (Taraki), have happened on or near World Press Freedom Day. Since May of 2006, at least seven media workers, including two journalists, have been killed in Sri Lanka's northern district of Jaffna. After an international press freedom mission to Sri Lanka, Reporters Without Borders and International Media Support released a report about the threats and attacks on media in the North, citing one newspaper publisher who said one editor and his top writer have not left their offices in 16 months for fear of assassination. "It's like we have to look for someone willing to die even to do the deliveries," said Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, publisher of the Jaffna-based Uthayan newspaper.

To truthfully cover the military situation and humanitarian crisis in Jaffna would entail risking one's life. Without international attention, Tamil journalists will continue to remain victims of coercion. The suffering of civilians in Sri Lanka is thus silenced by the atrocious attacks and threats against the press in Jaffna. We urge the United States government to support a United Nations monitoring mission to protect fundamental human rights such as freedom of speech in Sri Lanka.