(FMM/IFEX) – Free Media Movement (FMM) condemns the searching of the office of Jaffna Tamil daily “Yal Thinnakkural” by members of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). Soldiers cordoned off and searched the office on 5 January 2006 at 2.45 p.m. (local time). According to information received by FMM, SLA members searched the editorial, press, administrative […]
(FMM/IFEX) – Free Media Movement (FMM) condemns the searching of the office of Jaffna Tamil daily “Yal Thinnakkural” by members of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). Soldiers cordoned off and searched the office on 5 January 2006 at 2.45 p.m. (local time).
According to information received by FMM, SLA members searched the editorial, press, administrative and advertisement sections of the paper.
Tamil Net reports that the soldiers were pursuing a photographer who had taken pictures of events unfolding after a grenade attack on a military sentry point, but the man escaped them. Angered by this, the soldiers claimed that the photographer worked for “Yal Thinnakkural” and searched the office.
This is the second such operation conducted by the SLA in Jaffna within a short period (see IFEX alert of 20 December 2005), and clearly constitutes a threat to freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on 8 January, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance complained that Mr. Joy Jeyakumar, a senior photographer for the Tamil daily “Veerakesari”, was summoned on 5 January to the office of the Colombo Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for questioning. He was interrogated by officials for half an hour on whether or not he had taken the photographs published in the 1 January issue of “Veerakesari” on the arrest and detention of Tamil residents in the Wellawatte Police Station in Colombo.
This is another clear violation of the right to information and should be regarded as another instance of intimidation of Tamil journalists by government security forces.
FMM urges the authorities to look into these complaints without delay and to instruct security forces to respect the right to freedom of information and the right of journalists to cover all issues of public interest.
