Sri Lanka

The commander of the Sri Lankan army, Major-General Sarath Fonseka has labelled some journalists and sections of the media as “traitors”. In an interview published in the state-controlled Sinhala daily Dinamina on January 2, Foneska said the “treachery” of the media was the only obstacle hampering the military’s fight to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). “The biggest obstacle is...

Press freedom organisations have called for the prompt dismissal of Sri Lanka’s Labour Minister, Mervyn Silva, following his physical and verbal abuse of officials of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC). According to news reports, Dr Silva assaulted SLRC’s news director, TMG Chandrasekara, at the premises of Sri Lanka’s main public television broadcaster on December 27, 2007. The assault...

The Sri Lanka military air strike last week on the Voice of Tigers, the radio station of the Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the country, is being described as a war crime. Three of the station’s staff, who had not been given any warning, and six other civilians were killed in the bombardment by air force jets. "Voice of Tigers is a propaganda radio operated by the LTTE rebels, but the rules

The civil war, internal displacement, limited access to information and restrictions on journalists’ freedom of movement have proved to be great obstacles to press freedom in Sri Lanka, particularly in the country’s eastern provinces. These are some of the findings of the fact-finding mission by representatives of the International Press Institute (IPI), the International Federation of

The ongoing violence in Sri Lanka is taking its toll on press freedom and freedom of expression. Journalists are directly in the line of fire; their safety and security have been compromised; some have even been forced to flee for their own safety. At the recent general meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) appealed to the government, the

State-controlled Sri Lankan television station Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) has sent four of its journalists on compulsory leave after they submitted a letter stating that their professional rights had been disrespected and damaged. According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), SLRC Producers' Union Chairman Kanchana Marasinghe, Organiser Herbert Kumara Alagiyawanna, Athula Peiris and...

State-controlled Sri Lankan television station Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) has sent four of its journalists on compulsory leave after they submitted a letter stating that their professional rights had been disrespected and damaged. According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), SLRC Producers' Union Chairman Kanchana Marasinghe, Organiser Herbert Kumara Alagiyawanna, Athula Peiris and

An investigative journalist in Sri Lanka has been facing death threats after he made startling revelations about Sri Lanka’s purchase of Mig-27 fighter jets from Ukraine. Press freedom organisation have urged European and US embassies to do their utmost to protect Iqbal Athas of the Sunday Times, after receiving an email from the journalist in which he said he feared for his life and had gone into...

Since fighting resumed in 2006 between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Tamil-populated Jaffna peninsula has become a nightmare for journalists, human rights activists and the civilian population in general. Murders, kidnappings, threats and censorship have made Jaffna one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists to work in. Seven media...

A Tamil journalist was attacked with acid in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo just as he left hospital where he was undergoing treatment after an assault by soldiers in June, the Free Media Movement (FMM) has reported. A Sri Lankan policeman stands guard beside the bed of KP Mohan (right), an ethnic Tamil Journalist, in the National Hospital in Colombo August 16. An unidentified gang threw acid at...