New York, March 11, 2008—Six people affiliated with the Sri Lankan news Web site OutreachSL have been detained by the Terrorist Investigation Division of the Sri Lankan police force in Colombo since last week, according to Agence France-Presse and local news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the government of Sri Lanka to charge…
January 25, 2008 Posted February 7, 2008 Lal Hemantha Mawalage, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation ATTACKED The news producer of a national television network, who was recently involved in a staff protest against Labor Minister Mervyn Silva, was targeted in a knife attack in a suburb of Colombo on January 25, according to Sunanda Deshapriya of local…
Dear President Rajapaksa, As your government prepares to withdraw from its 2002 cease-fire agreement with Tamil separatists, the Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by reports that members of your government have tried to intimidate journalists in the Sri Lankan media in recent weeks. In at least two instances, an official used the word “traitor” against a journalist, which is decidedly inflammatory in a country that has seen civil war rage since 1983.
JANUARY 6, 2008 Posted January 14, 2008 Uthayan, Tamil-language daily THREATENED According to a letter to CPJ from Uthayan’s Managing Director E. Saravanapavan, the paper’s news desk received an anonymous phone call around 10:45 a.m. in which the caller told the paper to cease production or face unspecified consequences. Saravanapavan said the caller spoke in…
DECEMBER 27, 2007 Posted January 14, 2008 T. M. G. Chandrasekara, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation ATTACKED Chandrasekara, news director of the state-run Rupavahini television station, became the center of a dispute when Sri Lankan Labor Minister Mervin Silva and a group of followers entered the station’s Colombo newsroom on December 27 to complain about its…
DECEMBER 24, 2007 Posted January 14, 2008 Capucine Henry, Constantin Simon, France 24 DETAINED Henry and Simon, reporter and cameraman for the news channel France 24, were detained by soldiers on December 24 after filming an army checkpoint, and released two days later, according to international news reports. The journalists were traveling with a Tamil…
New York, November 21, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned an arson attack on a publishing house in Sri Lanka today that destroyed the printing press of three newspapers critical of the government. At least 12 unidentified masked men stripped publishing staff of their cell phones at gunpoint before starting the blaze and fleeing the…
New York, October 31, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an attack on Sri Lankan online editor Kumudu Champika Jayawardana, who was shot as he was driving home from work in a Colombo suburb shortly before midnight Wednesday. Sri Lankan media reports said Jayawardana, editor of the news Web site Ethalaya, was admitted…
New York, October 25, 2007—Sri Lankan authorities should immediately release Sunday Leader reporter Arthur Wamanan Sornalingam, who was detained in Colombo on Wednesday in connection with a story critical of a government minister, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Sornalingam and his mother, with whom he lives, were picked up by Criminal Investigation Division…