[RSF]

Reporters Without Borders is concerned about the fate of five Tamil journalists arrested by anti-terrorist police in Colombo in the past six days and urges the Sri Lankan authorities to explain why they are being held. “The anti-terrorist police are accusing the journalists of receiving money from the Tamil Tiger rebels, but after investigating, we can confirm that the funds in question came from a German foundation and from Tamil exiles,” the press freedom organisation said. “We condemn the fact the some of these journalists were badly beaten during their first few days in detention, and that this was clearly done to extract confessions from them.”

[Full Story]

[AFP]

The United States ranked North Korea and Myanmar Tuesday among the world’s worst violators of human rights and took other Asian countries to task for alleged abuses. In Sri Lanka, it said, “the government’s respect for human rights continued to decline due in part to the escalation of the armed conflict,” with the ethnic Tamil minority the “overwhelming majority of victims” of abuses. It cited major problems like extrajudicial killings of persons in custody, disappearances, and torture and rape by police and other security forces.

[Full Story]

[IFJ]

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) unequivocally condemns actions by senior Sri Lankan police to intimidate, abuse and humiliate journalists who report in the public interest. The Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate, reports that a senior police officer, Inspector Mahesh Perera, abused and assaulted Sugath Dharmapriya, a news producer of Derana TV, who was reporting from the scene of a bomb blast in Colombo on February 23.

[Full Story]

[IFJ]

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on Sri Lanka’s Inspector General of Police, Victor Perera, to investigate cases of harassment of journalists by members of the police and the Civil Defence Committees (CDC) and to prohibit authorities’ interference in the professional duties of journalists. In a letter to Mr Perera today, the IFJ expressed grave concern about reports from its affiliate, the Free Media Movement (FMM), that several incidents involving attacks on journalists or abuse of the rights of journalists have been instigated by police and CDC members.

[Full Story]

[BBC]

Police in Sri Lanka are abducting Tamils in Colombo “like dogs”, a leading human rights campaigner says. Convener of the civil monitoring committee (CMC) and leader of the Western People’s Front (WPF) said: “since 12th February seven people were kidnapped by white van in Colombo”. According to Mano Ganeshan, MP, the number of abductions is increasing around Colombo and its suburbs.

[Full Story]