[AFP]

An ethnic Tamil journalist in Sri Lanka’s formerly embattled north was brutally attacked with iron bars, police said on Saturday, the latest in a string of assaults on the nation’s media.

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[CPJ]

The U.K.’s Channel 4 has screened amateur footage of the body of Tamil news presenter Shoba, indicating that she was shot and killed during the government’s final military surge in the northeast. Shoba, who went by one name, also reported under the name Isaipriya or Isaippiriya for the media division of the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to Channel 4 and the pro-LTTE TamilNet news website. “Her role was as a journalist rather than a direct fighter,” Channel 4 reported.

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[Reporters Without Borders]

Reporters Without Borders today expressed revulsion at the death of a Tamil journalist in a Sri Lankan Army bombardment on the north of the country, which it described as a “war crime”. Punniyamurthy Sathyamurthy was killed during an air raid on 12 February on Thevipuram, Mullaithivu district in the region of Vanni, being fought over by the army and rebel Tamil Tigers (LTTE). He had recently filed news of the plight of civilians in the latest wave of fighting. “Army air strikes and artillery fire on areas where there are tens of thousands of civilians, including Tamil journalists, are war crimes” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

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[ HRW ]

The Sri Lankan government should immediately drop charges and free J.S. Tissainayagam, a prominent Tamil journalist on trial for his writings, Human Rights Watch said today. A Tamil publisher, N. Jasiharan, and his wife, V. Valamathy, who were also arbitrarily arrested, should be freed immediately. “The Sri Lankan government is shamefully using antiterrorism laws to silence peaceful critics in the media,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This is no way for a government that claims to be a rights-respecting democracy to act.”

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