New York, June 6, 2001 — In a letter sent today to Sri Lankan president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, CPJ welcomed her government’s recent decision to lift censorship restrictions on the Sri Lankan media. The letter also urged the president to lift access restrictions that still impede reporting on the country’s long-running civil war.
In addition to the various forms of censorship that were imposed over the last three years, press coverage of the conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the military has been extremely limited, due to the government’s failure to grant journalists regular access to the conflict areas. Journalists are required to apply for official permission to visit conflict areas, but such permission is almost never granted.
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