Action Alert Archive

Take Action Now! (USA)

Silenced voices, silenced suffering

July 17, 2009

As death tolls in Sri Lanka’s internment camps rise, the voices speaking out on behalf of nearly 300,000 innocent civilians continue to decrease. The Sri Lankan government has utilized excessive restrictions against the press, in addition to an institutionalized culture of intimidation and violence to silence dissident voices in the media. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) lists Sri Lanka as the worst so-called democracy for press freedom.

On July 13th, the government blocked the website Lanka News Web, which had published reports of a visit to the largest internment camp in the North: Menik Farm. Sources from Lanka News Web reported that upon leaving the camp, cameras were confiscated to prevent publicizing the inhumane living conditions. RSF described the website censorship as the “latest evidence of a decline in freedom [of] expression in Sri Lanka.”

Despite professed concern from human rights organizations and President Obama, Sri Lanka continues to oppress domestic and international media. The most notable recent transgression is the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga, a TIME correspondent who vocally criticized government policies. (TIME). Though Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse claims he was a good friend ofWickrematunga’s, TIME and the BBC report overwhelming evidence that the Sri Lankan government was responsible for the journalist’s death. Wickrematunga’s death was a catalyst in garnering outcry from international media against Sri Lanka’s restrictive policies. A recent RSF report stated that, “in Jaffna, men armed with machetes forced an Uthayan distributor to burn the copies of the newspaper that he was about to distribute. They also destroyed copies of the Tamil newspaper Valampuri.” The International Press Freedom Mission has expressed shock at “repeated instances of elected representatives and Government Ministers using violent and inflammatory language against media workers and institutions.” Such aggression towards the journalists has led to “widespread self-censorship” for fear of their lives. At the end of June the Sri Lankan government announced that it would be restoring its Press Council, which will have the power to “pass jail sentences on journalists and newspaper publishers”, according to RSF. RSF expressed alarm at Sri Lanka’s institutionalization of such draconian measures.

The Sri Lankan government is succeeding in its campaign of silencing dissident voices. As civilians continue to die in internment camps in the North and journalists are prohibited from telling their stories to the world, I urge you to work with the State Department to enact targeted diplomatic and economic sanctions on the government of Sri Lanka to force compliance with international standards for human rights and press freedom. The silenced voices across the island deserve this, and more.