(FMM/IFEX) – The following is an 11 May 2005 FMM press release: Free Media Movement leadership receives death threats Victor Ivan, FMM convener and chief editor of “Ravaya” newspaper, and Sunanda Deshapriya, FMM spokesperson, former editor of “Yukthiya” newspaper and a freelance journalist, have received death threats from an extreme group calling itself “Theraputtabhaya force” […]
(FMM/IFEX) – The following is an 11 May 2005 FMM press release:
Free Media Movement leadership receives death threats
Victor Ivan, FMM convener and chief editor of “Ravaya” newspaper, and Sunanda Deshapriya, FMM spokesperson, former editor of “Yukthiya” newspaper and a freelance journalist, have received death threats from an extreme group calling itself “Theraputtabhaya force” in a letter signed by Commander Mayadunne. Leading figures of the civil society movement, which supports a peaceful solution to the two-decade-old ethnic conflict, also received the same letter on the same day.
The threatening letter, which claimed responsibility for the murder of journalist Sivaram Dharmeratnam, says that all traitors should be ready to become “fertiliser of the motherland” if they continue to betray it. Sivaram, a leading Tamil journalist in Sri Lanka, was abducted and killed on 28 April 2005.
The letter was received on the day of a protest rally organised in Colombo by the Patriotic National Movement (PNM) against “the betrayal of the country to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam”.
Given Sri Lanka’s recent history of political killings on various grounds, threats like this create a fear psychosis among the targeted groups. FMM is extremely concerned that these kinds of threats could promote self-censorship among journalists and marginalise and curtail the space for voices critical of such undemocratic actions.
FMM strongly urges local and international democratic forces to remain vigilant about the developing situation of uncertainty and insecurity in the country which could lead to social, political and cultural restrictions of freedom of expression and grave threats to the personal security of civil society and media activists.
Sunanda Deshapriya
Spokesperson,
FMM
