Free Media Movement

(FMM/IFEX) – According to Prajathanthra – Foundation for Freedom of Expression, in two recent instances journalists have been harassed and threatened, in open violation of freedom of the press and the right to free expression. On 29 November 1997, three journalists of the Tamil language newspaper “Virakesari” were harassed, threatened, and humiliated and their photographic […]

(FMM/IFEX) – According to “Prajathanthra” (the Foundation for Freedom of Expression – Sri Lanka), Niresh Eliathamby, a journalist attached to the Associated Press bureau in Colombo, was held at gunpoint for more than two hours by security services personnel while he was carrying out his duties as a journalist on 15 October 1997, the day […]

(FMM/IFEX) – According to “Prajathanthra” (the Foundation for Media Freedom in a Democracy), Sri Lankan journalist D.B.S. Jeyaraj, who now lives in Canada, is being subjected to death threats and other warnings by members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are carrying on a war of separation in Sri Lanka. Jeyaraj, who […]

Sanjeewa Niroshana, a photojournalist for the “Lankadipa” newspaper, was assaulted by employees of the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court, where he had gone to cover the trial of a prominent Buddhist monk. A statement by the Court Registrar which was issued following the incident made it clear that employees of the Court had been directly involved. […]

On 9 April 1996, the Sri Lankan government temporarily withdrew the news broadcasting licence issued to two private radio stations following the broadcast of an incorrect news report by one of the stations. “Sirasa-FM”, the Sinhala-language station of the Colombo-based Maharaja Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Network, announced in one of its news bulletins that the government […]