Another well-known journalist in Sri Lanka received a death threat Saturday morning from an unknown caller. Former deputy editor of the Sunday Leader, editor of the monthly magazine Montage and leading investigative journalist and South Asia co-coordinator of the International News Safety Institute (INSI) Frederica Jansz received the death threat at approximately 11:30 a.m.
The Free Media Movement (FMM) condemned this threat in the strongest terms and, given the threatening situation in Sri Lanka for independent media and journalists, said it needed to be taken very seriously.
The caller spoke in Sinhalese and first asked if it was Frederica Jansz speaking. Proceeding thereafter to tell her that she was involved in a lot of unnecessary work, the caller told her to stop immediately or that she would see in a very short period of time what would happen to her. When asked by Jansz to be more specific on what kind of unnecessary work she was involved in, he replied that she knew what it was and then repeated the threat.
Jansz had received a number of indirect threats during the month of May. On one occasion, on May 28 at around 4:30 a.m., a heavy vehicle was parked outside her residence for an hour with its lights on and engine revving. In early May, a decapitated chicken was left in front of her office.
