A Sri Lankan police officer obstructed and threatened a Tamil journalist yesterday, who went to cover a story about Sri Lankan Railway Department officials obstructing Vavuniya locals from helping in the setting up of today's Saubhagya Village Program.
An event for the "Saubagya Project" - which was established by the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa - was organised across the village in Santhasolai, Vavuniya for today.
Locals who went there to organise the event were stopped by the Railway Department officials from Anuradhapura and prevented from getting involved. The local Divisional Secretary was informed about the incident through the area's Grama Niladhari.
Following this, the Divisional Secretary went to the scene, discussed with the Railway Department officials and thwarted the attempts to prevent the incidents from taking place tomorrow.
A Sri Lankan police officer in unmarked uniform then interfered with the duties of a journalist who went to cover the incident and threatened and intimidated him.
This incident points to the decline in freedom of the press in Sri Lanka and the growing climate of fear that journalists, particularly Tamil ones, in the island operate under.
