Tissainayagam and colleagues in Sri Lankan jail for one year

By pearlaction | March 7, 2009 |

[Committee to Protect Journalists] The Sri Lankan government should release a journalist and his two colleagues who have spent a year behind bars on terrorism charges for publishing magazine articles, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Terrorist Investigation Division forces arrested Vettivel Jasikaran, manager of the news Web site OutreachSL, and his companion, Vadivel…

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Tamil journalist killed in bombardment amounting to “war crime”

By pearlaction | February 16, 2009 |

[Reporters Without Borders] Reporters Without Borders today expressed revulsion at the death of a Tamil journalist in a Sri Lankan Army bombardment on the north of the country, which it described as a “war crime”. Punniyamurthy Sathyamurthy was killed during an air raid on 12 February on Thevipuram, Mullaithivu district in the region of Vanni,…

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BBC suspends Sri Lanka FM reports

By pearlaction | February 9, 2009 |

[BBC] The BBC World Service is to stop providing radio news to Sri Lanka’s state broadcaster because of what it calls “deliberate interference”. A statement said FM broadcasts to the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation would be suspended from Tuesday. The BBC said many of its news reports in Sinhala, Tamil and English had been blocked…

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Sri Lanka’s other war keeps media on the run

By pearlaction | January 25, 2009 |

[AFP] Sri Lanka is in the grip of its biggest military offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels, but the country’s journalists are also facing an unprecedented battle of their own. Since the killing of the anti-war Sunday Leader editor Wickrematunga on January 8, at least eight senior journalists and media activists have fled the island, fearing…

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U.S. ‘appalled’ by Sri Lanka attacks on journalists

By pearlaction | January 24, 2009 |

[Reuters] The United States said it was “appalled” by violence against journalists in Sri Lanka, after an editor was stabbed on Friday, the third attack on the country’s media this month. “The United States is appalled by continuing physical attacks and threats against media personnel in Sri Lanka,” State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood said…

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