Two journalists questioned

Opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Puttalam District MP Range Bandara speaking to Poddala Jayantha at the National Hospital in Colombo yesterday. Pix by Pradeep

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=50809)

By T. Farook Thajudeen  and Elasian Amarasinghe.

Two journalists who were alleged to have been involved in the assault on veteran journalist Poddala Jayantha were released on personal bail of Rs. 500,000/ each by Nugegoda Chief Magistrate Vasantha Jinadasa, yesterday. Poddala Jayantha, the general secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association, had been assaulted Monday evening at Embuldeniya, Nugegoda.

The Special Investigation Unit of the Mirihana Police produced the suspects, Benette Rupasinghe (news editor of Lanka E News) and Sandaruwan Senadeera (its publisher), before the Nugegoda Magistrate yesterday,

on alleged involvement in the attack. According to Senior Superintendent of Police Deshabandu, a team of police officers conducting investigations into the assault had questioned and recorded the statements of Benette Rupasinghe and Sandaruwan Senadeera in connection with the incident.

Police submitted that they suspected the involvement of the two journalists to the incident since it had been the suspects who had initially given the news of the assault on Poddala Jayantha to his wife.

Counsel Vidura P. Manchanayake and Manjula Pathiraja who appeared for the two journalists submitted that the journalists had had nothing to do with the incident but had, on hearing of the assault on Poddala Jayantha, informed his  wife and advised her to lodge a complaint with the Police.

Further inquiry was postponed for August 3.

Meanwhile the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said yesterday the attack on Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association’s General Secretary Poddala Jayantha is part of a “trend” being experienced in the country.

The journalist was abducted, beaten, and dropped by the side of a road in a Colombo suburb on Monday, according to a release by the association and two colleagues who spoke to him.

The attack came on a busy road during rush hour at 5:15 p.m. Jayantha’s colleagues said witnesses at the scene told them six unidentified men in a white Toyota Hi Ace van with tinted glass windows grabbed Jayantha as he was walking home in the well-to-do suburb of Nugegoda.

The same type of vehicles have been used to pick up anti-government figures in the past, CPJ research has found. The journalist was left on the side of the road about half an hour later.

Jayantha declined to speak directly with CPJ, but two colleagues who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution told CPJ by phone that he was beaten with an iron bar and wooden poles–weapons similar to those used in other recent attacks on journalists. Jayantha has a broken ankle and is reportedly severely bruised over much of his body. In an apparent attempt to humiliate him, his abductors shaved the hair on half his head and the other half of his beard.

“The attack on Poddala Jayantha is part of a trend,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “These attacks are a chilling reminder that journalists remain under attack in Sri Lanka even after the end of the government’s battle with Tamil separatists. We call on authorities to ensure a thorough and immediate investigation into this assault.”

The Associated Press reported that police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said that “authorities don’t know who was behind the attack on Jayantha, who had long accused the government of using threats to silence criticism in the media. No arrests have been made.”

Sri Lankan journalists came under increased attack after the government decided to pursue an all-out victory of the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2006. Despite the end of the country’s decades-long civil war in May, the climate of intimidation has persisted for journalists. During much of the fighting, foreign and local reporters were prohibited by both sides from covering the front line, a policy the government is continuing.

CPJ reported extensively on attacks on journalists in “Sri Lanka: Failure to Investigate” and recently ranked Sri Lanka as the fourth-worst country in the world for impunity in attacks on journalists

Media minister comdemens the attack

(http://www.island.lk/2009/06/03/news1.html)

Condemning the attack on Poddala Jayantha, Secretary to the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association on Monday evening, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said that journalists were among the persons under investigation over their alleged links with the LTTE. According to him, officers of the Sri Lanka Army, businessmen and politicians were being investigated. He revealed that vehicles belonging to former MPs had been used by the LTTE to transport explosives.

Referring to a recent statement attributed to Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka, the Minister said that the Defence Ministry would reveal the identity of persons who had been on the payroll of the LTTE. He said that the suspects would also face legal action indicating their identities could be known in about two weeks.

Commenting on the assault on Poddala Jayantha, a senior member of the Dinamina Editorial staff, the Minister said that the police had questioned Bennet Rupasinghe of Lanka e-news along with another staffer.

He rejected a request from Lankadeepa journalist Ms. Vinitha Gamage, on behalf of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, to expose its members allegedly involved with the LTTE as otherwise all would be suspect.

A craven act of terror

Poddala Jayantha was always at the forefront

( http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2009/6/44427.html)

The dastardly attack on Secretary of the Working Journalists` Association Poddala Jayantha must be condemned unreservedly by one and all. He was waylaid on Monday in full view of the public at the Embuldeniya junction and bundled into a white van according to eyewitnesses. Tonsured and injured at the hands of his assailants, he is now receiving treatment at the National Hospital.

Media rights activists are blaming the government for the attack on the grounds that the abductors had used a white van normally associated with the ruling party thugs. The government, too, has condemned the incident. Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa condemning the attack yesterday told a media briefing in the same breath that some businessmen, journalists, military personnel and ex-MPs were being probed for their alleged links with the LTTE. We are intrigued! What does this queer juxtaposition of his condemnation of the attack on Jayantha and a serious yet unsubstantiated allegation against journalists really mean? We hope it does not mean that terror links are being cited in extenuation of deplorable attacks on journalists perceived to be or are hostile to the government.

A media person was quoted by this newspaper yesterday as having said a government that traced and destroyed Prabhakaran must be able to apprehend those who attacked Jayantha. This argument sounds tenable to a great extent but the question is why those who are peddling it never campaigned for eliminating terrorism and restoring the rule of law in the North and the East. Is it that they did not want democracy to be revived in the North and the East at the expense of the LTTE?

Whenever journalists come under attack, a government in power naturally becomes the prime suspect unless proper investigations are carried out. During the past few months several journalists were assaulted almost in a row. The Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickremetunga was assassinated in January. The government promised a speedy probe but nothing has yet come of it. Investigations into violence against Keith Noyahr, Upali Tennakoon and others have gone the same way. If the government is to clear its name, it must probe those incidents and apprehend the culprits. Better late than never!

Meanwhile, the government must name the journalists on the LTTE`s payroll without further delay if it has evidence to that effect. Its failure to do so will only mean it is propagating a blatant lie to justify a witch hunt against the media.

JVP deplores attack against Poddala Jayanthe

At a time security forces have completely defeated tiger terrorism the government, instead of taking measures to re-establish law and order in the country, allowing media to be attacked time and time again has drastically endangered democracy in the country states the JVP.

Issuing an announcement deploring the attack on the General Secretary of Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association Poddala Jayanthe the Political Bureau of the JVP states the priority of th government at this stage is to re-establish the supremacy of law and order in the country.

Announcement in full:

Mr. Poddala Jayanthe, the General Secretary of Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association was attacked by an unidentified group on the 1st. We vehemently condemn such attacks on media persons. There have been several attacks on media persons and the government being blamed for these attacks is unavoidable as it has failed to take any measures against such attacks. We believe continuation of such attacks drastically endangers democracy in the country.

During the past three decades tiger terrorists carried out various atrocities in our country. This broke down the supremacy of law and order in the country. It destabilized society and harmed democracy. The first priority of the government, at this moment when security forces have totally defeated tiger terrorism, is to re-establish the supremacy of law and order in the country. The government should take urgent measures towards this.

However, incidents like the attack on Mr. Poddala Jayanthe indicate the government is not taking measures to fulfill this task. Several media persons were attacked in the past but it has not been possible to arrest or punish any perpetrator. It is clear that this situation is harmful to the country.

We vehemently condemn attacks on media persons and call upon the government to assure the security of all citizens including media persons, punish all underworld groups and confirm supremacy of law and order in the country.