Sri Lanka

Six months after the unexplained disappearance of Sri Lankan journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknelygoda, the government has refused to offer any assistance or provide answers to his wife, Sandhya. The government’s attitude is a clear indicator of the anti-media polices of President Mahindra Rajapaksa, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. Eknelygoda, a political reporter and...

Threats have been made against the family of senior Sri Lankan journalist Gamini Pushpakumara. Pushpakumara, who is an executive committee member of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association (SLWJA) and secretary of the program producers' union of the state-owned Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), was summarily dismissed from employment at SLRC after presidential elections in Sri Lanka...

The Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) has welcomed the arrival in the United States of Sri Lankan journalist JS Tissainayagam, who arrived at Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Saturday morning. He was met there by friends. According to CPJ representative Kamel Labidi, who was on hand to meet Tissa, “He was all smiles, and said to thank everyone who helped him gain his freedom.”...

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has issued a pardon to Sri Lankan journalist JS Tissainayagam. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is waiting for official clarification, however, concerning several important details. The country’s recently appointed external affairs minister, GL Peiris, announced the pardon at a press conference in Colombo. “President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to pardon...

One month after the disappearance of her husband Prageeth Eknelygoda, the journalist’s wife, Sandhya Eknelygoda , has said that she has not been able to get police or other government officials to actively investigate the case. “I have written to the president and have not gotten a response,” Eknelygoda told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Our children want their father back, and we...

Two journalists have disappeared in Sri Lanka, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Chandana Sirimalwatte, chief editor of the Sri Lankan weekly newspaper Lanka, was detained by police around noon on January 30, according to his wife, Hemali Abeyratne, and staffers at the paper. Lanka e News journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda has been missing since January 24. Lanka, the weekly...

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the reported disappearance of Prageeth Eknelygoda, a political reporter for the Sri Lankan news website Lanka eNews. Lanka eNews Editor Sandurwan Senadeera told news organisations that Eknelygoda was last seen leaving the office on Sunday evening. He told news outlets that he fears the reporter may have been abducted. In its own account...

Sri Lankan journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing Sunday night in Colombo. A senior police official told Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) he was too busy with Tuesday's presidential election to make the case a priority. Eknaligoda, who writes political analyses for the Lankaenews website, left work at about 9 p.m. but did not arrive home and has not contacted any family members or friends. He...

Flouting a January 15 supreme court ruling, state-owned TV stations Rupavahini and ITN continue to openly favour President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign to win another term in the presidential election to be held on January 26 with a total of 21 candidates taking part. Detailed monitoring by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has established that 98.5 per cent of the news and current affairs air-time...

On the 100th day after the sentencing of journalist JS Tissainayagam, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to use his constitutional powers to release him from the 20-year prison sentence that was given to him on August 31. Tissainayagam, also known as Tissa, was one of dozens of ethnic Tamil journalists who were swept up...