Sri Lanka

Four ethnic Tamil students have been detained since early December 2012, after they were detained for attempting to mark the LTTE’s Heroes Day in Sri Lanka.

The International Federation of Journalists, in collaboration with partners and affiliates, has released situation reports on the state of media freedom in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and on the challenges facing journalists in areas of India affected by a long-running Maoist insurgency.

Free movement of media personnel in the North and East of Sri Lanka continues be restricted by the government, despite a key recommendation on this very matter by a reconciliation and accountability commission appointed by the President.

As the Universal Periodic Review on Sri Lanka begins at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, the International Federation of Journalists and its partners urge closer attention to issues of free speech and the right to information.

Sri Lanka must be reminded of its international obligations to protect free expression and to stop intimidation of civil society and the media during its UPR at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, says Human Rights Watch.

In a shocking turn of events, The Sunday Leader has apologised in front of the Sri Lanka Press Council to the defence minister for reporting that he had threatened former editor Frederica Jansz with death – even though she recorded his call and the minister admitted to making it.

Consultations carried out with key actors in Sri Lanka suggest hopes that the end of the civil war in May 2009 would quickly improve conditions for the country’s media practitioners are fading fast.

The new owner of the Sunday Leader has sacked editor Frederica Jansz just two months after she received death threats from Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and five months after ARTICLE 19 warned the UN human rights body that the president’s affiliates were buying up the private media.

Over the years, Sandhya Eknelygoda, the wife of missing journalist Prageeth Eknelygoda, has emerged as a compelling spokeswoman for Sri Lanka’s disappeared people.

The Sri Lankan cabinet approved a Freedom of Information Bill in 2004, but parliament was dissolved and the bill never went further.

The government plans to amend the 1973 act so that websites will be regulated by the same agency that regulates printed media.

“We view this move as the third stage in a crackdown on user generated content on the web, following the ban of four websites in November and police raids of two news portals in June,” said IFJ.

Shantha Priyadarshana Wijesooriya, an investigative journalist who has covered human rights issues and official malfeasance, was the target of an attempted abduction.

Frederica Jansz works for The Sunday Leader, and was conducting a phone interview with Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is also the brother of the president.

The raids were carried out by about 25 police officers from the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) and the Crime Investigation Department (CID), who had a search warrant, and the detainees were taken to CID headquarters in Colombo.

No explanation has been provided for the Ceylon Newspapers (Pvt) Ltd. decision to terminate the services of editorial director Lalith Alahakoon and cartoonist Wasantha Siriwardana.