In response to a report by The Associated Press saying that the agency’s Sri Lanka bureau chief Ravi Nessman left the country on Monday after the government refused to renew his visa, we released this statement…
“By refusing to renew the visa of an international news agency bureau chief the government is signaling to foreign journalists that it does not want independent reporting,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. “This is part of a disturbing pattern of harassment and censorship of all journalists in Sri Lanka which has continued despite the end of the civil war.”