In Sri Lanka crackdown, mobs and death threats turned on journalists
There is genuine cause for alarm about the anonymous death threats going to Sunil Jayasekara’s phone. They started streaming to Jayasekara, the convener of Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement, an umbrella group (hence calling the leader a convener) of journalists’ organization in Sri Lanka, just before an FMM press conference on Saturday in Colombo.
Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement speaks out against government
In a high-risk move, the Free Media Movement in Sri Lanka released a statement condemning the government’s ban on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) holding press conferences and issuing press releases. CPJ blogged about the government’s move last week.
Sri Lanka moves to silence NGOs, press groups
The Sri Lankan government has taken yet another step to silence critical media coverage, banning non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from holding press conferences and issuing press releases, as well as running workshops or training sessions. The action, announced Sunday by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defense, left the country’s many press groups wondering whether they are even…
Critical Sri Lankan newspaper editor held at knifepoint
New York, August 26, 2013–Five unidentified men entered the Colombo home of a Sunday Leader associate editor and writer early Saturday morning, held her at knifepoint, and searched her home, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Sri Lankan authorities to conduct a thorough and efficient investigation into the attack on…
Despite official repression, Sri Lanka media report attack
Details are emerging of Sri Lanka’s effort to control media coverage of an ugly attack on demonstrators by security forces last week. In Rathupaswala village in the town of Weliweriya, outside Colombo, on August 1, soldiers beat and fired on people protesting what they feared was contamination of their drinking water by a nearby factory.…
No right to information in Sri Lanka
You would think that with fighting between government forces and secessionist Tamils finished in May 2009, the Sri Lankan government might ease its grip on public information–information which is really the property of the country’s citizens, not whichever administration happens to be holding political power. In 2004, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike’s cabinet did approve a…
Sri Lanka Supreme Court slams door on websites
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court slammed the door on a case about the shutdown of four websites that had failed to register with the government. In handing down its decision, the Court appeared to rule that freedom of expression in Sri Lanka is not an absolute right and can be restricted–and you don’t need…