New York, May 4, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned by yesterday’s police raid on the home of Dharmeratnam Sivaram, a veteran journalist and columnist, in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. Sivaram edits Tamilnet (www.tamilnet.com), an online news service that covers Sri Lankan affairs with special emphasis on news of interest to the…
New York, March 25, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned for the safety of journalists working for the London-based Tamil Broadcasting Corporation (TBC). Journalists there have received numerous death threats in recent weeks, according to TBC staff and other CPJ sources. After the station began broadcasting in the United Kingdom and in…
The Sri Lankan government’s fragile cease-fire with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), reached in February 2002 after 20 years of fighting, held throughout 2003 and brought a measure of stability to the media. But political tensions reached a crisis point on November 4, when President Chandrika Kumaratunga suspended Parliament and deployed troops…
There were 138 journalists in prison around the world at the end of 2003 who were jailed for practicing their profession. The number is the same as last year. An analysis of the reasons behind this is contained in the introduction on page 10. At the beginning of 2004, CPJ sent letters of inquiry to…
Dear Major General Tellefsen: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to draw your attention to a death threat issued last week against journalist Ponniah Manikavasagam, a correspondent for the Tamil-language daily Virakesari who contributes regularly to the BBC. Manikavasagam lives in the town of Vavuniya and covers news across Sri Lanka’s northern region.
The vicious murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan focused international attention on the dangers faced by journalists covering the U.S. “war on terror,” yet most attacks on journalists in Asia happened far from the eyes of the international press. In countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, reporters covering crime and…
Shortly after U.S. president George W. Bush arrived in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, in February 2002 for a state visit, the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, reported a miracle: that a cloud in the shape of a Kimjongilia, the flower named after the country’s leader, Kim Jong Il, had appeared over North Korea. “Even…
A cease-fire agreement signed in February by the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ushered in a period of relative calm in Sri Lanka after 19 years of war. The LTTE has been fighting for an independent homeland for the country’s ethnic Tamil community, which has suffered discrimination from the Sinhalese…
IN THE WAKE of September 11, 2001, journalists around the world faced a press freedom crisis that was truly global in scope. In the first days and weeks after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., governments across the globe–in China, Benin, the Palestinian Authority Territories, and the United States–took actions to…