Sri Lanka

29 April 2011

Authorities continue drive to stamp out pro-opposition media in Sri Lanka

A court in the Colombo suburb of Pugoda refused to release Shantha Wijesuriya, a journalist with the Lanka E-news online newspaper, on bail pending trial on a contempt of court charge for an erroneous news report. Access to the website was also blocked on an order from the court pending the outcome of the trial, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF)...

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10 April 2011

LankaeNews editor freed on bail, authorities still have him in their sights

Bennet Rupesinghe, one of the editors of the Colombo-based online newspaper LankaeNews, was released on bail Friday after a week in pre-trial detention for allegedly making threats, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Arrested when he reported to police in the Colombo suburb of Wellampitiya on March 31, Rupesinghe was freed on payment of 310,000 rupees (2...

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5 April 2011

Authorities step up intimidation, jailing LankaeNews editor

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on Sri Lankan authorities to immediately release LankaeNews editor Benette Rupasinghe, who was Thursday arrested by the Colombo police for allegedly threatening another man. Aged 68 and a diabetes patient, Rupasinghe is currently being held in the infirmary of Colombo prison. The press freedom organisation condemned the way...

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31 March 2011

Sri Lanka: Harassed and threatened, news website’s journalists no long able to work normally

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its support for LankaeNews, a Colombo-based online newspaper that has made a major contribution to media pluralism and independently reported news and information in Sri Lanka, and for its journalists, who are unable to work normally because of the many threats and attacks against them. Their safety is no longer assured...

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28 January 2011
Press marks cruel anniversary in Sri Lanka

Press marks cruel anniversary in Sri Lanka

A year ago last January, Sri Lankan cartoonist Prageeth Eknelygoda mysteriously disappeared. Two years ago this month, independent TV station Sirasa was bombed with military precision - a couple of days before well-known editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was critical of his government's war against the Tamil Tigers, was killed. Today, none of the cases have been solved, and no one has been

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8 January 2011
Si Lanka: Newspaper editor’s murderers still at large two years later

Si Lanka: Newspaper editor’s murderers still at large two years later

Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, a courageous, talented and iconoclastic journalist, was shot dead in Colombo by a death squad two years ago. His murder is still unpunished. Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) saysit is appalled by the fact that the Sri Lankan government is doing nothing to solve this murder and in fact is clearly preventing the truth from

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1 January 2011
Sri Lanka: Less anti-media violence in 2010 but more obstruction and self-censorship

Sri Lanka: Less anti-media violence in 2010 but more obstruction and self-censorship

New forms of censorship and obstruction being used by government to prevent diverse and freely-reported media coverage of the situation in Sri Lanka. The fall in the number of physical attacks, threats and cases of imprisonment is to be welcomed, but it is worrying that the authorities are blocking the return of real editorial freedom, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF...

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13 December 2010

Sri Lanka: Reporters covering attack on opposition politician assaulted

Lanka E News journalist Shantha Wijesuriya and Sirasa TV airport correspondent Premalal were attacked on December 7 by a group of persons purported to be Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) employees. Wijesuriya suffered serious injuries and had to seek treatment at a hospital, according to press freedom group Free Media Movement (FMM). According to reports, the journalists were assaulted by...

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18 October 2010

Ten years of impunity for Jaffna-based journalist’s murderers

On the 10th anniversary of Tamil journalist Mayilvaganam Nimalarajan’s murder in the northern city of Jaffna, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its hope that the Sri Lankan government will finally relaunch the police investigation into his death. The Jaffna correspondent of the BBC’s Tamil and Sinhalese-language services and the Sri Lankan newspapers...

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2 August 2010
Voice of Asia Network torched in Sri Lanka

Voice of Asia Network torched in Sri Lanka

Two employees were injured in an arson attack Friday on the offices of the Voice of Asia Network in the heart of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. The fire destroyed the studios of the group’s Siyatha TV station, but the network’s three radio stations have been able to remain on the air. The Associated Press, quoting a spokesman for the company, said a dozen men, armed with assault rifles and gasoline...

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