Sri Lanka ranks 162nd for press freedom

by admin
Jan 30, 2013
Reporters Without Borders has ranked Sri Lanka in 162nd place out of 179 countries in the annual "Press Freedom Index 2013", as media freedom in the island continues to suffer.

The report, entitled "Dashed Hopes Follow Spring", also placed Sri Lanka in the category of "very serious situation", in the world press freedom map.

 Speaking about the report, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said,
“The Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders does not take direct account of the kind of political system but it is clear that democracies provide better protection for the freedom to produce and circulate accurate news and information than countries where human rights are flouted,”

“In dictatorships, news providers and their families are exposed to ruthless reprisals, while in democracies news providers have to cope with the media’s economic crises and conflicts of interest. While their situation is not always comparable, we should pay tribute to all those who resist pressure whether it is aggressively focused or diffuse”.
Sri Lanka was ranked 163rd in last year's report.

See examples of media freedom in the island, in our earlier posts:

SL military intimidate journalists trying to see IDPs (30 September 2012)

Military stops journalist from visiting IDPs (28 September 2012)

Gothabaya threatens newspaper editor ‘will be killed’ (09 July 2012)

Rajapaksa tells Sri Lankan media to broadcast the truth (30 March 2012)

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button