[BBC]

The Sri Lankan government has warned that any website dealing with Sri Lankan affairs must register with the government or face legal action.

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[Huffington Post]

The Sri Lankan government is in hot pursuit of U.S. businesses, seeking to usher in more investment dollars to help rebuild the country following the end of the civil war two years ago. Jobs that help to grow the economy and benefit all Sri Lankans are welcome. But companies are on notice that the Sri Lanka government is following ethnically discriminatory policies, and those that favor only certain segments of the population — wittingly or not — are compounding the ethnic divides that caused the 26-year war in the first place.

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[Time]

On June 14, the British television network Channel 4 broadcast a stunning hour-long documentary presenting footage of horrific abuses allegedly committed by Sri Lankan troops during the last months of the country’s war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The images are graphic and profoundly disturbing. They include the execution of naked, bound prisoners; soldiers laughing and making macabre sexual jokes about women who appear to have been raped before they were executed; and images of bodies in field hospitals and refugee camps, which eyewitnesses said had been deliberately shelled by the Army in violation of international norms. It also describes the utter failure of the United Nations to do anything about it; the UN’s decision to leave the war zone made it possible for the Sri Lankan Army to finish off the LTTE without any independent witnesses. Journalists, too, were banned from the area.

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[BBC]

Until now journalists and foreign nationals needed permission from the defence ministry, even though the conflict ended two years ago.

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[Los Angeles Times]

Echoing a global debate over the balance between human rights and the fight against militants, some suspect that paramilitary forces or others closely associated with the government may have played a role in the attacks.Critics charge that the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which came to power espousing human rights and benefits for the downtrodden, appears outright hostile to journalists who don’t toe the government line, contributing to a climate of fear. Anyone who speaks out against the government is accused of demoralizing the troops, being a traitor or supporting the Tigers, said Lal Wickrematunge, chairman of the Sunday Leader, sitting at his desk beside a picture of his slain brother.

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[The Observer]

Doctors say wounded Sri Lankan civilians are dying for want of proper medical treatment as they lie trapped in a makeshift hospital in the last rebel-held pocket in the north-east of the island. This weekend, hundreds of injured civilians poured in to the improvised medical facility in Putumattalan village, which has been repeatedly targeted by artillery. Earlier in the week 16 patients were killed in shelling. Both government forces and Tamil Tiger separatists have been accused of war crimes during the conflict, although confirmation is impossible because independent journalists are banned from the conflict zone.

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[Reuters]

Sri Lanka’s journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders are living in fear and need better protection from violence, United Nations investigators said on Monday. In a joint statement, 10 U.N. experts called on the government to act quickly to halt repressive practices. “The fear of reprisals against victims and witnesses, together with a lack of effective investigations and prosecutions, has led to a circle of impunity,” they said.

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[CNN]

Journalists in Sri Lanka have come under a growing number of attacks and intimidation, with some fleeing the country or losing their lives, media analysts and rights groups say. On January 8, a prominent journalist who had been critical of the government was shot and killed by unknown assailants on the outskirts of Colombo. His death came days after masked gunmen besieged a privately owned television station and destroyed its equipment; and in another attack in January, a newspaper editor and his wife were stabbed on their way to work. While Sri Lankan authorities have denied any government involvement, the cases have prompted international criticism of Sri Lanka over the safety of journalists. There are also questions about press freedoms.

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[OHCHR]

GENEVA — The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Thursday she was deeply concerned by reports of the rapidly deteriorating conditions facing a quarter of a million civilians trapped in the conflict zone in northern Sri Lanka, and of alleged human rights abuses and a significant number of civilian casualties, as well as the huge displacement. Pillay also expressed concern at the highly restricted access to the Vanni region for aid agencies and impartial outside observers, including journalists and human rights monitors.

“The perilous situation of civilians after many months of fighting, multiple displacements and heavy rains and flooding is extremely worrying,” Pillay said. “The lack of access for independent monitors, humanitarian workers and the media only adds to concerns that the situation may be even worse than we realize,” she added.

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[AFP]

Sri Lanka is in the grip of its biggest military offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels, but the country’s journalists are also facing an unprecedented battle of their own. Since the killing of the anti-war Sunday Leader editor Wickrematunga on January 8, at least eight senior journalists and media activists have fled the island, fearing that they too could be targeted by unidentified attackers. Both local and international media rights groups have joined in demanding thorough investigations and an end to the culture of impunity that has encouraged attacks against the independent media over the years.

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