As Sri Lanka’s government continues to keep the A9 highway, the sole supply route to the Jaffna peninsula closed, media there is complaining of an acute shortage of newsprint and ink.
Civil society activists say the shortage is deliberately introduced by the Sri Lanka government as part of its campaign to deny Jaffna residents free access to information from independent sources. This is a serious form of curtailing media freedom, the activists say.
The International Independent Journalist Organization and Sri Lanka Organization for Freedom of Expression in Jaffna sent letters to the ambassadors of Sri Lanka’s main donor countries and international media groups protesting the issue.
The closure of the A9 highway by the SLA in August 2006 and the reluctance of the Commissioner of Essential Services to ship printing materials has together lead to the current acute shortage of news print and ink, newspaper publishers in the peninsula said.
The Tamil dailies Uthayan, Yarl Thinakural and Valampuri are the only sources of news and information to the public in the absence of radio or television stations in Jaffna peninsula.
The Uthayan, which enjoys the highest circulation, has reduced its number of copies from 22,000 to 7,500, reducing the number of pages from 16 to 4.
Soon Uthayan will be forced to run only 2 pages and before long the paper may be forced to shut down, staff at Uthayan said.
Yarl Thinakural and Valmpuri also face a similar bleak future.
People eager to read news papers and unable to buy a copy, flock in front of tea stalls and shops where a single copy of the daily paper is kept for public view.
Meanwhile, Jaffna residents have also been cut off from other sources as telephone lines to the northern peninsula were cut last week.
Telephone lines to Tamil Tiger (LTTE)-controlled Vanni and most of Jaffna were cut on January 27.
Since then only a section of telephone numbers (around 1500 of around 8000 lines), were working in Jaffna.
Vanni, without celluar link, remained completely cut off for communication.
Financial transactions in many bank branches are paralysed and fundamental services such as hospital ambulances, civil services and media, dependent on telephone communication are being disrupted.
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers went to Vavuniya Telecom and had instructed the technicians to accompany them towards the communication exchange at Madukanda and shut down the telephone link to Vanni and most of the lines to Jaffna.
With the only land route to the peninsula being severed since August, telephone was the only means of communication within Jaffna as well with the rest of the country and international community.
Although the SLT gave ‘technical failure’ as the official explanation for the lines being cut off, no reason was provided for the delay or inability to fix the problem.
The Sri Lankan military establishment has earlier cut off telephone links during military operations.
The shortage has forced the publishers of Tamil dailies to drastically reduce the number of pages in each edition and the number of copies published.
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| Customers at a Jaffna store read a displayed copy of Uthayan newspaper. Photo TamilNet. |
Civil society activists say the shortage is deliberately introduced by the Sri Lanka government as part of its campaign to deny Jaffna residents free access to information from independent sources. This is a serious form of curtailing media freedom, the activists say.
The International Independent Journalist Organization and Sri Lanka Organization for Freedom of Expression in Jaffna sent letters to the ambassadors of Sri Lanka’s main donor countries and international media groups protesting the issue.
The closure of the A9 highway by the SLA in August 2006 and the reluctance of the Commissioner of Essential Services to ship printing materials has together lead to the current acute shortage of news print and ink, newspaper publishers in the peninsula said.
The Tamil dailies Uthayan, Yarl Thinakural and Valampuri are the only sources of news and information to the public in the absence of radio or television stations in Jaffna peninsula.
The Uthayan, which enjoys the highest circulation, has reduced its number of copies from 22,000 to 7,500, reducing the number of pages from 16 to 4.
Soon Uthayan will be forced to run only 2 pages and before long the paper may be forced to shut down, staff at Uthayan said.
Yarl Thinakural and Valmpuri also face a similar bleak future.
People eager to read news papers and unable to buy a copy, flock in front of tea stalls and shops where a single copy of the daily paper is kept for public view.
Meanwhile, Jaffna residents have also been cut off from other sources as telephone lines to the northern peninsula were cut last week.
Telephone lines to Tamil Tiger (LTTE)-controlled Vanni and most of Jaffna were cut on January 27.
Since then only a section of telephone numbers (around 1500 of around 8000 lines), were working in Jaffna.
Vanni, without celluar link, remained completely cut off for communication.
Financial transactions in many bank branches are paralysed and fundamental services such as hospital ambulances, civil services and media, dependent on telephone communication are being disrupted.
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers went to Vavuniya Telecom and had instructed the technicians to accompany them towards the communication exchange at Madukanda and shut down the telephone link to Vanni and most of the lines to Jaffna.
With the only land route to the peninsula being severed since August, telephone was the only means of communication within Jaffna as well with the rest of the country and international community.
Although the SLT gave ‘technical failure’ as the official explanation for the lines being cut off, no reason was provided for the delay or inability to fix the problem.
The Sri Lankan military establishment has earlier cut off telephone links during military operations.
