A Tamil Tragedy – Assination of Neelan Tiruchelvam

Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam was slated to be a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in the fall of 1999. A renowned constitutional lawyer from Sri Lanka, Neelan was better known to me as a leading Tamil human rights activist who had thrown his hat into the political ring. As a scholar he had helped establish think-tanks to address social issues in a country beset by communal strife. And as a member of parliament he worked to develop a national plan that would end the then-15-year-old civil war between the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government.

I knew his academic appointment in Cambridge wasn’t just about lectures and research — it was also spurred by the many death threats he had received. But the school year started too late. Ten years ago this week, on July 29, 1999, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber stepped in front of Neelan’s car outside his Colombo office and blew himself up, killing Neelan. Five others were wounded in the blast.

Neelan was a soft-spoken yet passionate man with an incomprehensibly sunny disposition. He believed that all Sri Lankans — Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims — could live together peacefully in a democratic society. He spoke out against abuses by the Sinhalese-dominated government, but he did not accept violence as a means to achieving the Tamil population’s aims. And he rejected the claim of the Tigers’ leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, that the LTTE was the “sole representative” of the Tamil people.

Such views from a prominent Tamil undermined not only Prabhakaran’s justification for unrestrained violence, but also the Tigers’ argument for supremacy over all other Tamil groups. Neelan’s murder and the killing over the years of others who shared his views, lost the LTTE support of many Tamils in Sri Lanka and in the diaspora, and all but foreordained the Tigers’ eventual defeat.

But it is Neelan’s life, not his death, that speaks to Sri Lanka’s future. His 55 years were dedicated to creating a rights-respecting, multi-ethnic Sri Lanka. He would have seen the Tamil Tigers’ defeat in May not just as an end to the suffering of civilians and combatants, but as an opportunity to address the grievances of Sri Lanka’s minority communities and give the nation a fresh start.

Unfortunately, in defeating the Tigers, the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has adopted a very different strategy. Although the fighting has stopped, the continuation of wartime policies, including overbroad emergency regulations and severe restrictions on free expression, suggests that President Rajapaksa is not anxious for the politics of war to come to an end.

Today more than 280,000 Tamil civilians displaced from the war zone during the last brutal months of the fighting are locked up in detention camps, euphemistically called “welfare villages” by the government. Instead of letting families move in with relatives and host families if they wish, the government says they can only leave the camps when they can return to their villages after demining and rebuilding. The government already admits it can’t meet its promise to return 80 percent of those displaced by the end of the year. Past government practice and pressure on international agencies to build permanent structures in the camps suggests that it may actually be years before most of these people return home — and that this may be the government’s intention as it tries to maintain full control over Tamil war survivors.

The government insists that letting displaced persons leave the camps would set hidden LTTE fighters loose. But thousands of alleged combatants have already been screened out from the displaced population and detained separately. By holding several hundred thousand civilians under lock and key, the government is keeping the survivors of the fighting from telling their stories to the media and human rights groups, even if their accounts include Tamil Tiger abuses as well as government ones.

More ominously, the Rajapaksa government is sending a message that it wasn’t just the Tamil Tigers that were defeated, it was the Tamil population. As a result, the government is doing nothing to reach out to Neelan Tiruchelvam’s successors among the Tamil population in Sri Lanka and abroad. This short-sighted approach is destined to continue state policies and practices that fomented Tamil militancy some 30 years ago.

The United States and other concerned governments need to show Colombo by words and deeds that ending the mistreatment of the Tamil population and ensuring full Tamil participation in the political process is the only way forward. Neelan certainly wouldn’t have had it any other way.

James Ross is Legal and Policy Director at Human Rights Watch.

- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-ross/a-tamil-tragedy_b_247029.html

Mangy attacks ‘Adults Only’ movies ban

By Ifham Nizam

Criticizing a recent Government declaration that screening of ‘Adults Only’ movies would be banned, Mangala Samaraweera, MP said that the Rajapaksa Government was now acting like the Taliban.

He said at a press conference in Colombo yesterday,he said that nothing could be as ridiculous as this as the majority of previous award winning movies in the country had adult only themes.

Samaraweera, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party- Mahajana Wing leader said that knowing Cultural Affairs Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena for a long period, he was confident that Yapa doesn’t have a Taliban mentality.

He said popular films like Karumakkarayo, Thunwheni Yamaya and Sudhilage Kathawa could not be viewed if adult theme movies were banned.

There was a big difference between Blue films and Adults only movies and the latter could be categorized according to the audiences’ages. For his part he was certainly against Blue Films.

Samaraweera also questioned Sri Lanka Freedom Party General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena about the SLFP’s reforms scheduled for September 1. He said that he would like to ask Sirisena whether the reforms are going to be based on S. W. R. D. Bandaranaikepolices or that of the Taliban.

To his knowledge the Taliban regime which had no respect for any culture had destroyed Buddha statues to stick with their fundamentalist policies. The present Government seems to be doing things likewise irrespective of culture, ethics and morals.

http://www.island.lk/2009/07/31/news2.html

3 TNA candidates in Vavuniyaa polls receive death threats – CMEV

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 11:56 GMT]
The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said Wednesday that it received complaints that three candidates of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) contesting the election to the Vavuniyaa urban Council have been issued with death threats.

The candidates are V.Paranjothy, N.Mathiharan and P.Sellathurai, according to a press release by the CMEV. The candidates of the TNA have been contesting the Vavuniyaa polls under the banner of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) in “HOUSE” symbol.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29884

Implications of the cultural crisis of Sri Lanka

2009-07-30 | 4.40 PM

Sri Lanka’s rulers are entangled in a knot of cultural issues in a multiplity of sectors and taking various measures according to their whims and fancies creating a vicious circle.

In one scenario, the government has decided to ban the ‘adults only’ movies even for the adults of Sri Lanka. Before that, the government also initiated legal action against 12 websites the CID had identified containing ‘obscene’ material. It was not clear why these sites were handpicked among the hundreds of the thousands of websites of that genre. Some critics said that they
were the mostly visited sites by the CID officials.

Meanwhile, the state-sponsored commodity worship that is highly exhibited via the ways the mobile phones are used in Sri Lanka took the life of a grade 9 student of Museus Girls’ College, a leading private school in Colombo city. The girl was caught by school prefects with a mobile phone in her possession and the sources say that it contained some ‘obscene’ images. The embarrassed girl hanged herself in a school toilet and was admitted to hospital to succumb a day after.

The Ministry of Education issued a circular banning mobile phones in schools by students.

Meanwhile, the education sector came under severe criticism with the great number of errors in the mid-year test papers provided by the Education Departments of the Provincial Councils. The test papers were full of errors and the testing process also had many faults. Media and the critics pointed the fingers to the highly politicized bureaucracy in the education sector. The government is completely failing to uphold the standards of the education sector since most of the administrators and the senior educators are counter-productive political henchmen.

The government’s ‘pious’ policy is questioned also in its war against the underworld goons sparing one section that is known run by a notorious Minister close to the highest echelon of the rule. Many criminals including the underworld goons are being killed by police and the ‘unknown groups’ while the people have resorted to street justice against certain offenders.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Justice is polishing the old dialogue on the need of the implementation of the death penalty. Sinhala Buddhist religious leaders are also backing this policy that is condemned by the civilized world. They are ignoring the non-violent principles of the Lord Buddha as they did in many other cases also.

In this context, no wonder they are cruel to elephants as media reported two elephant cubs that were forcibly separated from their mothers living in Pinnawala elephant orphanage had been chained in a garage in Temple of Tooth in Kandy. The reports angered the chief prelates of the Buddhist Malwaththa and Siyam chapters and they accused the environmentalists that raise voice against cruelty against animals are the elements against the Buddhist cultural practices like holding parades for which the elephants are needed. Sri Lanka has only 120 tamed elephants while 90 of them are aged and the cabinet had approved offering the two elephant cubs, the chief prelates said in a statement.

- Lanka Polity

http://www.lankanewsweb.com/news/EN_2009_07_30_008.html

Sri Lanken national ID scheme eNIC tender fraud documents related to the Lasantha Wickrematunge assassination,

2009
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* Was first publicly revealed by Wikileaks working with our source.
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July 28, 2009
Summary

This archive presents several files related to a highly controversial Sri-Lankan national ID card scheme due to be awarded tomorrow, Thursday, July 30, 2009—unless bidders file appeals to the decision. These documents should enable bidders to appeal.

Flaws in both this proposal and the tender process were highlighted in The Sunday Leader newspaper of November 9, 2008[1]

The Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, later sued the editor of the paper over the article. A month later, on January 8, 2009, the editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was assassinated. A now famous posthumous editorial, “Voice from the grave”, published three days later, stated “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.”[2].
See also this BBC interview (video) with the Defence Secretary on Lasantha Wickremtaunge’s assassination.

Contents

• bidder-instructions.pdf
• heitech-bid.pdf
• intent-to-award-to-heitech.pdf
• meeting-minutes-march-6-2009.pdf

DOWNLOAD/VIEW FULL FILE FROM

current site, Fastest (Sweden), US, UK, Finland, Netherlands, Poland, Tonga, Europe, SSL, Tor

- http://wikileaks.org/w/index.php?title=Sri_Lanken_national_ID_scheme_eNIC_tender_fraud_documents_related_to_the_Lasantha_Wickrematunge_assassination%2C_2009

Mobile ban in Sri Lanka schools

Parents have been blamed for providing mobiles to their children

Sri Lanka has banned students from using mobile phones at school following the suicide of a teenager disciplined for using her device, officials say.

An education ministry spokesman said the ban would apply in public and private schools.

Students say high-tech mobile phones offer them opportunities to text messages, pictures and surf the net.

But teachers and education officials are now opposing the idea of mobile phones in classrooms.

A 14-year-old girl hanged herself last week after being disciplined for having a phone inside school premises.

Another student from the same school in the capital Colombo attempted suicide after receiving a similar reprimand.

Both students were reportedly afraid that they would receive a severe punishment and be reported to their parents.

Now the government says it has imposed a total ban on mobile phones in all schools.

“The ban on mobile phone comes into effect immediately. We have received many complaints from parents, principals and the public (about mobile phones),” Susil Premajayantha, Sri Lankan Minister of Education told the BBC Sinhala service.

The government has also advised teachers to restrict the use of their mobile phones inside school premises.

Some blame the parents for providing phones to their children as students below the age of 18 are not eligible to get mobile phone contracts on their own.

More than half the Sri Lankan population of about 20 million people use mobile phones and their reach is spreading further because of falling line rentals and intense business competition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8173155.stm

Sri Lanka Guardian site ‘blocked’ in Sri lanka

2009-07-29 | 2.50 PM

Readers in Sri Lanka are unable to access the ‘Sri Lanka Guardian’ website for the past two days. However, the site is accessible from other parts of the World.
This has raised the question if it has been ‘blocked’ in the country, possibly by the authorities.

Last week, the Government announced its decision to ‘block’ all pornographic websites in the country, after President Mahinda Rajapaksa issued directions in this regard.

The ‘Sri Lanka Guardian’ is however a political website, carrying quality news and analyses by internationally-reputed writers on the ethnic issue and war, since inception in August 2007.

By no stretch of imagination can the new direction of the President apply to the website, as extraordinary care is being taken on the choice of news reports, political and military analyses and photographs for use in the website.

It is hoped that better sense will prevail with those concerned, and the site will be allowed to be viewed in Sri Lanka as elsewhere across the world

http://www.lankanewsweb.com/news/EN_2009_07_29_006.html

Lasantha – a celebration of dissent and diversity

By: Dilrukshi Handunnetti

It is unthinkable to me that Lasantha has now become part of Sri Lanka’s gruesome statistics of dead journalists. But that is the cold reality.

This innovative and dynamic man who co-founded the Sunday Leader 15 years ago and maintained a larger than life presence in the local media circuit has now been silenced.

A buoyant and mischievous editor with the largest heart and a brilliant mind, the heartbreaking fact is that while his many colleagues were becoming statistics, it was Lasantha who would not let the targets of media violence die without cause by creating a fiery media debate around their murders. To most, that is why he was the elixir of hope and an antidote to their woes.

He displayed this combative spirit even in his final editorial published posthumously.

Typically, our editor had lots of energy. In the midst of writing his famous political column under the nom de plume “Suranimala”, he would breeze out of the room to check  the latest cricket scores, while chewing on a pen or, even worse, on whatever finger food lay around someone’s desk.

Unabashed, he practiced combative journalism and wrote explosive stories earning scores of enemies who were nothing but the corrupt and the abusive in this land. Even his worst detractors would acknowledge that Lasantha had extraordinary sources that others could only dream of cultivating.

If he put two fingers into his mouth and whistled, we instantly knew that he was happy and that we could get away with almost anything on such a day – except delayed write-ups.

Every Friday Lasantha and I had a ritual: Lasantha would do the final planning of the pages and I, the only journalist to do this, would bargain for less space. Each Friday he would relent, admitting that I wrote long pieces and therefore deserved to write one piece less.

If we happened not to be in the editorial room, Lasantha  would never demand to know where we were, he would only call us to gently ask whether we were coming in that day. It is he who waited for us. Neither did he force discipline nor schedules on us.  As long as articles arrived on schedule, he remained content.

Among my richest memories of him are those of the editorial independence he fostered. He nurtured a small, yet strong team, and was happiest when we began to spread  our wings. He watched us grow like a doting father.

Likewise, he never put a comma on an article without discussing it with a journalist, a courtesy he extended even to the most junior of reporters among us.

The editorial culture he fostered was so unique that he and I often ended up writing on the same topic on opposite pages but expressing diametrically opposite views. He accepted dissenting opinions within the editorial itself, and if I ever turned apologetic, he would say with a mischievous grin: “That’s the way to go girl!”

When a young Sunday Leader reporter Arthur Wamanan was taken into CID custody over frivolous and uncorroborated charges in October 2007, Lasantha said that he would have preferred for me to have been the one to go to jail. “You have no idea what a story it would be if a woman were to go to jail. I would have gone to town,” he said with his infectious laugh, solemnly pledging to fight on behalf of Arthur and expose the insanity of a piqued politician.

Ironically, his last interview was also given to me, to be included in a regional media review report in which he said that the state made people feel as if “we all lived at their pleasure” and critiqued the international community for showing little interest in the abuse of human rights and freedom of expression, except to issue the occasional statement.

Lasantha introduced a brand of journalism others dared not practice. He dedicated an entire newspaper to investigative journalism. And he often said, “The word fear is not in my vocabulary. Strike it off early.”

Lasantha abhorred the practice of self-censorship. He never pruned articles, only polished them to enhance quality.

A Jefferson Fellow and the 2000 Integrity Award winner from Transparency International, he worried over the international ranking of Sri Lanka as the second most dangerous place in the world for journalists, coming a close second to Iraq. So he took stances of great courage and wrote stories nobody dared to publish or make space for.

He openly advocated parity, peace and a negotiated settlement for the country’s conflict when other media houses happily towed the government line. He condemned the government, as perhaps the world’s only administration to aerial bomb her own people. In the eyes of many, Lasantha was the true democratic opposition in Sri Lanka.

Naturally, many hated Lasantha’s guts. Just a few weeks ago a letter arrived by post for him. Enclosed was a recent story published in the Leader titled “Kilinochchi capture made into a media circus.” Throughout the article were the Sinhala words in blood red: “If you continue to write, you will be killed.” Lasantha simply laughed and threw the article in the dustbin.

The killers undoubtedly waited for an ideal time of least resistance. The war hype post  capture of Kilinochchi, which is the LTTE’s administrative capital and Elephant Pass, is such that even a brutal slaying tends to get overlooked.

Lasantha was an epoch making investigative journalist, the fiercest government critic and the most courageous man I ever knew. The man who single-handedly revolutionized Sri Lankan journalism and made a conscious decision to lose much advertising revenue in the name of the Sunday Leader’s motto: to write “Unbowed and Unafraid.”

It was a personal honor to have been part of his team, all that I may aspire for but never became.

For all his strengths, he was also the joy in our lives. He told stories that others refused to write, and eventually paid the ultimate price for taking that risk in the form of a bullet in  his scull.

Lasantha was a celebration of dissent. The very voice of diversity. A man without fear.

This editorial room is silent today, ominously so. We do not hear his infectious laughter. But the journalists resolutely go about doing their daily work with a body language that strangely appears to signify that his spirit still lingers: “Nothing is forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten.”

- http://www.himalmag.com/Lasantha-a-celebration-of-dissent-and-diversity_dnw123.html

International Press Freedom Mission chase wild geese in Sri Lank

[Editorial, Eelam Nation]

“In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it….” Lasantha Wickrematunge the assassinated editor of the Sunday Leader in his posthumous editorial.

Lasantha knew of the consequences of his being a true journalist in Sri Lanka and had to pay the price for being one.

The International Press Freedom Mission (IPFM) in their open letter to President Rajapakse of Sri Lanka (appended) have addressed him on the premise that they were addressing a Head of a state and government with an inclination and the receptiveness for the restoration of a strong and virile democracy. If they were thinking that they could be helpful in proffering valuable advice on how the media could play a role towards this, then they are chasing a bunch of wild geese with a very tall order constituting eleven requests, when even one, the Sri Lankan leadership will refuse to deliver.

First, let us take the fourth request: “Release the first results of the investigation into the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge in 2009″.  The IPFM is rather out of date asking for the first result when the final result has come. A Minister of state, Mervyn Silva said to be the direct descendent of Dutu Gemunu has already   made a public declaration at a meeting in Hunupitiya, Kelaniya thus: “Lasantha from the Leader paper went overboard. I took care of him. Poddala (another journalist) agitated and his leg was broken. Now a fellow in my electorate is trying to stand against me. I now tell him in his own hometown, I will give him only seven more days. If he does not resign as chairman of the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha, don’t blame me later on. You don’t find fault with me. If this fellow goes against what I say, I will send him to the place where I sent Lasantha…” This is clearly not an admission or a confession but an undertaking given to a victim in waiting. God forbid.

At a time when King Dutu Gemunu I is being euphorically resurrected in the image of President Rajapakse his loyal minister in his supreme arrogance says: “Come and get us!” When the royal  declaration  epitomises  the concept of impunity obtaining in the highest  circles of  Sri Lankan leadership  what chance does the  IPFM  have in the world  to even   request to combat impunity as stated in the first request. Immunity is the privilege of the Sri Lankan royalty. This minister maintains an unblemished record of destroying all vehicles of free speech that come in his way to be helpful to his masters. Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission in a damning indictment on the indifference and apathy of the Sri Lankan society to such impunity   says most succinctly: “The absence of outrage is a sign of zero faith in the government. No one asks the government to do justice. This is the extent of loss of faith in good governance. Morally and legally, the country has reached its lowest depth”.

The second request for all journalists to work safely, in particular in areas where local council elections would soon take place such as Jaffna and Vavuniya: Talking of journalists working safely when the press has already been threatened and newspapers blatantly burnt in public, a show of strength by the parties in power, one can just imagine the end result. The third request is for journalist JS Tissanayagam and his colleagues to be released: His case is to come up soon and they can rest be assured that he will return to his cell. It must be remembered that his only real crime is that he is a Tamil. Except for this there is no case against him.

Fifth request: “Provide full and unconditional access to the IDP camps for all media in order to report freely and fairly on the reconstruction process since the end of the war….”  They must be out of their minds? The IDP camps in Vavuniya are the very epicentre of all human rights abuses and the prototype of the current war crimes and the ongoing crimes against humanity. Do they expect media agencies to be allowed there to report to the rest of the world on the happenings?  Even the films of the spectacle of Rajapakse’s son being showered with stones were destroyed on his orders by the media subservient even to a   relative of the president who had gone there, not surprisingly, to gain publicity at the expense of the adversity of the suffering Tamil people ‘liberated” by his father.  So much for the prospects for an independent and free media to survive.

Asking for the repeal of the Press Council Act No. 5 of 1973 in request 6, when they have only just decided to revive it to imprison journalists for long terms is insane, and then to say: “allow the media to strengthen the existing self-regulatory mechanism, in accordance with democratic practices”, The media minister has already stated: “journalists enjoy unlimited rights in reporting, it naturally becomes counterproductive when they employ their rights to harm the reputation of others.” Apprently,  he referring to dignitaries like Mervyn Silva and his other colleagues? Talking of something non-existent like democracy is a waste of time and journalists doing so will do so at their own peril as the families of some journalists have discovered.

Request No7:Introduce training for the police, army and the intelligence agencies on freedom of expression and the important role of the media in a democratic society. Since 2007, security forces have been allegedly responsible for kidnapping, beating and threatening at least 34 journalists and media workers: Try telling this to President Rajapakse’s little brother Gotabaya the defence secretary whose wrath can be disastrous. He should under no circumstances be annoyed. It would be recalled that when pressed at a media interview about aerial bombardments on hospitals he said there were no safe zones and all areas were vulnerable in the war that was claimed to be an humanitarian operation meticulously avoiding civilians and hospitals. He can be very ruthless when it comes to journalists. After all he was fighting a war against global terrorism, namely the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. The websites under his control have also claimed that the lawyers appearing for the Sunday Leader are traitors.

In 8 they say: “Award financial compensation to journalists who have been arbitrarily detained, beaten or otherwise harassed by security forces”. Do they think that they were detained, beaten and harassed to be rewarded from the state coffers awaiting the IMF loan? No way, especially in these days of the global recession. Further there are 150 ministers of state with their retinues with no work that could be productively done with 70 % of the budgetary expenditure shared amongst the three Rajapakse brothers. They have also to feed the near starving workers and peasants clamouring for food and basic amenities.

Regarding No. 9:Invite the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom and Expression to visit Sri Lanka, in line with your Government’s commitments to the Human rights Council in 2006: Human rights in Sri Lanka are now irrelevant and defunct and the human rights commission which started with all the trappings and fanfare with an international team of eminent persons has been disbanded with absolutely no result-an eye wash.

Regarding request 10: Work with the state-owned media to ensure the immediate end to direct verbal attacks and threats against independent journalists and press freedom activists, which has in particular promoted the unethical spread of accusations portraying the media as LTTE-supporters in a concerted hate campaign that has put several journalists’ lives in unnecessary danger: the state owned media work in mortal fear for their lives. Have they not noticed that the only truth reported in the state owned press are the date and the obituary notices?  All media have been warned that they are either with the government or against them. Go no further but take the latest case of Ravi Nessman of the Associated Press who has left Sri Lanka on the government’s refusal to renew his visa. He also revealed of a government document outlining a plan to keep hundreds of thousands of displaced people in camps for up to three years declined to renew his journalist’s visa.

In request 11 they have asked for structural legal reforms to create an enabling environment for a free and independent media including by transforming the existing state media into independent public service media, with guaranteed editorial independence etc. They must be out of their minds. The only newspapers that can survive are those that are servile and could unashamedly crawl to them. At a time when nearly 300,000 Tamils have been virtually imprisoned without them knowing why they should remain prisoners with  hundreds falling sick and dying weekly, women and children afforded the most horrendous  conditions of life with minimum nutrition denied, the  traumatic  pregnant women forced to abort, it is absurd to make this request when the media national or international are last thing in the world that the leadership would want to have around witnessing their programme of genocide in progress.

Our advice to the IPFM is not to waste their valuable time and energy in addressing the terrorist state of Sri Lanka on measures of media freedom. They could only injure themselves by banging their  heads against a wall. A good try anyway.

The following is the IPFM letter:

International Press Freedom Mission to Sri Lanka

16 July 2009

Open Letter to His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa

The International Press Freedom Mission to Sri Lanka, which is comprised of representatives from the world’s media community, including Reporters Without Borders, is extremely concerned over the ongoing spate of violent attacks against the media.  However, in spite of the military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the deterioration of the press freedom situation in the country has continued.

We welcome your recent statement ensuring the safety of Tamil-language media outlets following a series of harrowing attacks and death threats against their personnel.

However, we believe that much needs to be done immediately to ensure that Sri Lanka’s journalists and independent news media in Sinhala, Tamil and English enjoy the freedom and safety to which they are entitled in a democracy.

The International Mission would therefore like to propose to you and your Government an 11-point plan to redress the perilous press freedom environment in Sri Lanka:

1. Combat impunity through the creation of a Special Prosecutor’s Office for the investigation of crimes against the media with full autonomy to investigate attacks on and assassinations of journalists and to bring those responsible to justice. Several journalists have been killed since 2007, and yet none of these murders has yet been solved.

2. In accordance with international standards on media freedom and freedom of expression, put in place effective measures to ensure that all journalists can work safely, in particular in areas where local council elections will soon take place such as Jaffna and Vavuniya.

3. Release imprisoned journalist J.S. Tissainayagam and his colleagues B. Jasiharan and V. Vallarmathy, who have been detained since March 2008 under the Emergency Regulations, and were later charged under the 2006 Prevention of Terrorism Act. Withdraw all unjustified complaints and lawsuits brought by the police and government against journalists and freedom of expression activists and repeal legal provisions which may be used to punish journalists for engaging in legitimate media work, including those found in anti-terrorism legislation.

4. Release the first results of the investigation into the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge in 2009.

5. Provide full and unconditional access to the IDP camps for all media in order to report freely and fairly on the reconstruction process since the end of the war. The media can play a vital role in making sure that the reconstruction and reconciliation efforts are genuine and have real impact to bringing lasting peace.

6. Repeal the Press Council Act No. 5 of 1973, which includes powers to fine and/or impose criminal measures, including sentencing journalists, editors and publishers to lengthy prison terms. Instead, allow the media to strengthen the existing self-regulatory mechanism, in accordance with democratic practices.

7. Introduce training for the police, army and the intelligence agencies on freedom of expression and the important role of the media in a democratic society. Since 2007, security forces have been allegedly responsible for kidnapping, beating and threatening at least 30 journalists and media workers.

8. Award financial compensation to journalists who have been arbitrarily detained, beaten or otherwise harassed by security forces.

9. Invite the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom and Expression to visit Sri Lanka, in line with your Government’s commitments to the Human rights Council in 2006.

10. Work with the state-owned media to ensure the immediate end to direct verbal attacks and threats against independent journalists and press freedom activists, which has in particular promoted the unethical spread of accusations portraying the media as LTTE-supporters in a concerted hate campaign that has put several journalists live in unnecessary danger.

11. Introduce structural legal reforms to create an enabling environment for a free and independent media including by transforming existing state media into independent public service media, with guaranteed editorial independence, by adopting a strong right to information law and by overhauling broadcast regulation to put it in the hands of an independent regulator with a mandate to regulate in the public interest.

We are aware that the task you face is enormous, but we hope that your conviction to ensure a prosperous and democratic future for Sri Lanka will lead you to make it a priority to strengthen press freedom as a vital pillar in the reconstruction of a unified Sri Lanka.

We, as leading press freedom organisations across the globe, hope that you will give your personal attention to these matters and that you will encourage your government to consolidate a climate in which journalists can work freely and without fear.

In October 2006, June 2007 and October 2008 delegations from the International Press Freedom Mission to Sri Lanka, which is comprised of twelve international press freedom and media development organisations, undertook fact-finding and advocacy missions to Sri Lanka.

Those organisations joining this statement from the International Mission group include:

ARTICLE 19

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

International Media Support (IMS)

International News Safety Institute (INSI)

International Press Institute  (IPI)

Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)

World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC)

URL: http://www.eelamnation.net/headlines_details.php?secid=71&newsid=6284

Government refuses to renew press visa for AP Bureau Chief

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), is outraged by the Sri Lankan Government’s refusal to renew the press visa for Mr.Ravi Nessman, the Colombo Bureau Chief of Associated Press. After the authorities declined his request, he was compelled to leave the country on Monday July 20th. Even though the government has repeatedly emphasized that the decision is not related to Mr.Nessman’s reports of with the final stages of the war, by simply looking at the recent track record of the government, we have more than one reason to believe otherwise.

Mr.Ravi Nessman has reported extensively on the civilian deaths in the run up to the final stages of the Sri Lanka’s civil war. His controversial report filed on 24th of April 2009, which earned widespread attention in the foreign media, exposed the heavy toll on civilians. Quoting internal UN documents the report revealed that an average of 116 civilians were killed each day at the beginning of April. In addition to the reports on civilian casualties, Mr.Nessman was one of the first to expose Colombo government’s plans to lock up the displaced Tamil population in barbed wire camps for up to several years, through a report filed on 11th of February. Given the above context, we strongly believe that the reasons given by the government in explaining their reluctance to renew Mr.Nessman’s visa, does not reveal the real motive behind the decision. Mr.Nessman’s case clearly reflects the Sri Lankan state’s increasingly hostile attitude towards independent media. But this is not the first instance where the government openly adopted an obstructive and arrogant policy towards foreign media.

On the 1st of February, the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa openly warned news agencies of ‘dire consequences’ if they attempt to give the ‘LTTE terrorists’ a second breath of life. He named CNN, Al-Jazeera and the BBC as media trying to sensationalize civilian hardships in the war zone. Again on the 1st of April, the Immigration and Emigration Department of Sri Lanka announced that it has restricted the issue of visas to 837 persons including foreign media personnel, under the pretext of ‘protecting national interests.’ On the 4th of May, the Sri Lankan Army attacked the foreign journalists covering the civil war, accusing that they were indulging in ‘’malicious’’ reporting based on false information provided by LTTE rebels. Furthermore, on the 09th of May, three journalists from Channel 4 News were arrested and then deported on the following day, as a reaction to their report about the shocking conditions prevailing inside the internments camp for refugees. On the 12th of June, the ‘’Economist’’ magazine was banned by Sri Lankan Customs in order to prevent its subscribers from reading an article on Sri Lanka,  published in the latest issue of the magazine. In a similar incident, the authorities banned several South Indian journals, including popular Tamil language magazine, ‘Ananda Vikatan’, in order to keep it out of reach of the local readership. The authorities even went to the extent of arresting and detaining the importer of the magazine, Mr.Sritharasing, who is a leading book-store owner in Colombo – on the 5th of March 2009.

Considering the above, there should be no doubt that the refusal to renew the visa of the AP Bureau Chief must be seen as a continuation of the same hostile policy of the government, maintained against various foreign media personnel. While condemning outright the deliberate obstructions imposed by the Sri Lankan government against independent reporting, JDS calls upon the governments and other responsible international bodies to condemn the Sri Lankan government’s increasingly aggressive policy towards independent media, which is reflected once again through the case of Mr.Ravi Nessman.

Executive Committee

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka.