(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders voiced deep concern about the rapidly deteriorating situation for the media in Sri Lanka after Nadarajah Guruparan, the news director of the Colombo-based Tamil radio station Sooriyan, was abducted outside his home in the south Colombo suburb of Mount Lavinia as he left for work on the morning of 29 […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders voiced deep concern about the rapidly deteriorating situation for the media in Sri Lanka after Nadarajah Guruparan, the news director of the Colombo-based Tamil radio station Sooriyan, was abducted outside his home in the south Colombo suburb of Mount Lavinia as he left for work on the morning of 29 August 2006.
“The press freedom situation is alarming in Sri Lanka,” the organisation said. “Cases of threats, attacks and murders have increased over the past few months without anything being done to stop them. Both the government authorities and the Tamil Tiger separatists deny the right to information of those that do not support them. We call for Guruparan’s immediate release as well as a real commitment from the authorities to protect journalists.”
A witness said Guruparan had just left his home to go to work when four men pulled him out of his car and bundled him into another vehicle. They also took his car, which was found a few kilometres away several hours later. The Mount Lavinia police is in charge of investigating the kidnapping.
Guruparan’s last report prior to his kidnapping, broadcast on 26 August, was about human rights violations and kidnappings in the capital. His radio station had reportedly received several threats from paramilitary organisations. A few weeks ago, the authorities had expressed its discontent about the way the fighting between the government forces and the Tamil separatists was being covered by the Asian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), a network in which Sooryan is the most popular Tamil station.
Guruparan’s abduction comes just 10 days after the murder of Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, the editor of the Tamil daily “Namathu Eelanadu” (“Our Eelam Nation”). Six other journalists and media assistants have been killed in Sri Lanka since the start of the year. The attacks on the press have increased since the resumption of fighting between the government and rebels.
