Media intimidation continues

Sri Lanka’s crackdown on the media have deteriorated over the last few months, with yet more journalists arrested, kicked out of the country or shut down.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm in January over reports that journalists in Sri Lanka have been subjected to government intimidation, arrests, censorship, and harassment in the aftermath of the presidential election.

“We are receiving reports of government retribution against journalists who sided with the opposition in the election. Given the ugly history of attacks on journalists in Sri Lanka, we call on President Mahina Rajapaksa to ensure the safety of all journalists in Sri Lanka, and to use his new mandate to reverse the repressive trends of the past several years,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. 

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) appealed to the President to put a stop to arrests and intimidation of journalists working for privately-owned and foreign media.

“This wave of post-election violence could cast a lasting stain on the start of President Rajapaksa’s second term and bodes ill for the political climate during the coming years,” the organization said in a press release.

“It is quite normal for journalists and privately-owned media to side with a candidate before and during a democratic election but it is unacceptable for them to the victims of reprisals once the elections are over,” the press freedom organization added.

The authorities also ordered the deportation of Swiss journalist Karin Wenger, before later rescinding it.

Wenger, who covered the presidential election for Swiss public radio station DRS, had received a letter from the immigration department ordering her to leave the country within 48 hours.

“I fear I have been kicked out for asking uncomfortable questions at a govt. press conference,” Wenger, who is based in New Delhi, told AFP.

AFP quoted a government spokesman as saying the order was issued on the basis of “false information.”

Meanwhile, the Colombo headquarters of Lanka, a Sinhalese-language weekly that supports the Sinhala nationalist JVP opposition party, were closed by the authorities, 24 hours after its editor, Chandana Sirimalwatte, was taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation Department.

Separately, the offices of the Lanka-e-News website were also surrounded by the police. "The Criminal Investigations Department officers have surrounded the Lanka office and sealed it today," the web edition of the paper said.

Prageeth Ekneligoda, a political reporter for Lanka eNews, disappeared on the night of January 24. He was described by colleagues as a political analyst who supported opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka, and they feared he had been abducted.

Dozens of Sri Lankan journalists are living in exile abroad because of the dangerous and sometimes deadly situation for media workers in Sri Lanka, according to rights groups.

Official figures show nine journalists have been killed and another 27 assaulted in the past three years in Sri Lanka. Activists say over a dozen journalists have been killed.

Human Rights Watch said it feared the latest attacks against the media were aimed at silencing critics ahead of parliamentary elections due shortly.