Sri Lanka

A Sri Lankan journalist working in the war-torn northern region and his friend have been hacked to death, a media rights group said Thursday. P Devakumar, 36, a correspondent for the privately-run Sirasa television, was murdered on Wednesday, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said. Devakumar is the ninth media worker to have been killed in Jaffna since 2006, FMM said. Three more journalists have also...

The FMM reports with deep sadness that yet another journalist has been murdered in Jaffna, in the embattled Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The FMM vehemently condemns this dastardly act and extends its condolences to the late journalist's wife and family. P. Devakumar, a correspondent for Sirasa TV, Shakthi radio and the MTV Television Network-Jaffna district, was hacked to death on the evening...

A journalist was beaten up and an editor assaulted and robbed of his valuables in the eastern Sri Lankan town of Kathankudi, in seemingly election-related incidents, according to the Free Media Movement (FMM). Kathankidi has been a scene of election-related violence as well as widespread electoral malpractice in the recently-held eastern provincial council election. Freelance journalist JL...

Sri Lanka's military barred foreign journalists Thursday from covering weekend elections in the east that are seen as a test of confidence in the government, which seized the region from Tamil Tiger rebels last year, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Maj Gen. Palitha Fernando said any foreigner not registered as an election observer cannot be in Eastern province during the polls. An...

The Sri Lankan government has appointed a recently retired army Major General to a senior position at the troubled state broadcaster, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC). The appointment came as authorities released three journalists who had been held without charge for almost two weeks. Two other journalists arrested at the same time remain in custody. According to the Free Media Movement...

The Sri Lankan army took control yesterday of public Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) television. The army and police sealed off all roads leading to the station in the morning, preventing more than 200 staff from getting to work after employees threatened to strike in protest against a series of assaults by men “suspected of acting on behalf of a minister”. The takeover of the television...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has rejected the Sri Lankan government’s proposed national media policy in favour of a self-generated, self-regulated and independent framework that encompasses journalists from all sides of the nation’s conflict. According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate, Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa refused to divulge...

Six people affiliated with the Sri Lankan news website 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 New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CJ) has urged the government of Sri Lanka to charge these journalists and media workers or release them...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned two physical attacks on journalists on February 27 that seem to be linked to their coverage of a December incident in which Labour Minister Mervyn Silva stormed into the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), a state-owned television station, and assaulted its news director. “Physical attacks and acts of intimidation against SLRC journalists for...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on Sri Lanka’s government and its President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to take urgent action to protect the safety of journalists and uphold the rights of the media to report on issues of public interest. A serious deterioration in the press freedom environment and safety of journalists in Sri Lanka since January 2, when the government formally...