Tag Archives: cpj
Sri Lanka’s woeful January way-points
By Bob Dietz/CPJ Asia Program Coordinator For Sri Lankan journalists, January might be the cruelest month. In January 2011, Sonali Samarasinghe wrote about the death of her husband Lasantha Wickramatunga … Continue reading
Media rights group want Issipriya’s death probed
21 June 2011 The New York-based media rights group Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an international inquiry into the death of LTTE television presenter, who was allegedly executed … Continue reading
CPJ urges UN to intervene and investigate the apparent targeting of LankaeNews
Committee to Protect Journalists, NY, NY A Pugoda magistrate’s court ordered the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to suspend Lanka eNews within Sri Lanka while it tries the site’s detained journalist … Continue reading
Govt ‘responsble’ to probe Lasantha murder
The responsibility of investigating the assassination of Sunday Leader editor lies with the Sri Lanka government, says an international media watchdog. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says attacks on Namal … Continue reading
Diplomatic corps must act to free ailing Sri Lankan journalist – CPJ
New York, March 31, 2001–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the international diplomatic community in Colombo to help secure the release of Lanka eNews website News Editor Bennet Rupasinghe. … Continue reading
Media Under Surveillance
Bob Dietz, the Asia Programme Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists in an interview with The Sunday Leader stated that Sri Lankas media policy is an embarrassment to the entire nation.
Sri Lanka and Its Journalists — A Country Going Wrong
CPJ has launched a new report, In Sri Lanka, No Peace Dividend for Press. It takes a close look at the media in Sri Lanka, one year after the government declared a decisive victory over Tamil secessionists that ended 30 years of bitter, often genuinely suicidal ethnic conflict.
An indicator of what comes next for Sri Lanka’s media
In Sri Lanka, there is a lull of sorts in outright attacks on the media as the Rajapaksa government takes stock of where it stands, which is in a very strong position: Last May the government declared a final victory in the brutal 30-year conflict with Tamil secessionists.
Attorney General’s words about protecting journalists empty unless he backs them up with action.
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka welcomes the offer made by the Sri Lankan Attorney General, Mohan Peiris, to provide protection for exiled journalists if they return to the island but urges him to take immediate steps to prove he is serious about media freedom.
Exiled journalists asked to return
Sri Lanka’s Attorney General Mohan Peiris has said he was prepared to offer protection to any of the nations journalists who return to the country from exile, the US based media rights group, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said
ATTACKS ON THE PRESS IN 2009 – SRI LANKA
On may 19, the government formally declared a victory in its 26-year civil war with the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which had claimed territory for an ethnic Tamil homeland. Victory came at a high price for the press. Escalating attacks on independent journalists coincided with the governments 2006 decision to pursue an all-out military victory.
Is Sri Lanka done assaulting the media?
It was good to hear Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa point out in his Independence Day speech on Thursday that the country cannot be developed with harassment, gross punishments or by the gun. But the sentence that followed thatDiscipline is not revengegives cause for concern. Rajapaksas speech marked the 62nd anniversary of the countrys independence from Britain. It was delivered in Kandy, the heartland of the presidents electoral base.
Journalists in Sri Lanka face intimidation, censorship -CPJ
The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that journalists in Sri Lanka have been subjected to government intimidation, arrests, censorship, and harassment in the aftermath of this weeks presidential election.
Journalists under increasing threat as elections near
As Sri Lanka’s media comes under increasing partisan pressure, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on all sides contesting the January 26 general elections to respect the role of journalists in covering the campaign and voting process. CPJ notes with concern today’s assault on the BBC’s Sinhala service reporter who, according to Sri Lankan media reports, was hospitalized after a political mob, apparently linked to supporters of an agriculture minister, attacked her as she was covering the event.
One year later in Sri Lanka little has changed
By Bob Dietz/Asia Program Coordinator Lasantha Wickramatunga
Even by Sri Lankas standards, January 2009 was a brutal month for journalists.
On January 6, on a quiet road on the outskirts of Colombo, the countrys main independently owned TV station, Sirasa TV, was raided at 2:05 a.m. by 15 to 20 masked armed men working with military precision. At 2:35:31 they detonated an explosion, possibly a claymore mine, a military-style antipersonnel mine set off by an electrical charge through wires leading to the device.
And at around 6:40 a.m. on January 23, according to Upali Tennakoon, editor of the Sinhala-language, pro-government weekly Rivira, four men on two motorcycles forced his car to stop and smashed its window. One attacker used a metal bar with a single sharp point to hit Tennakoon in the face and in his hands when he put them up to defend himself, he said. He and his wife, Dhammika, were driving to his office at the time of the attack.
Wife of jailed SLankan reporter accepts award
AFP Wife of jailed SLankan reporter accepts award AFP/File Sri Lankan prison officials are pictured escorting Tamil journalist J. S. Tissainayagam to a prison bus, Fri Oct 2, … Continue reading
Another journalist attacked – CPJ
SOURCE: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), New York (CPJ/IFEX) – New York, June 1, 2009 – The general secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, Poddala Jayantha, was abducted … Continue reading
Sri Lanka Special Report: Failure to Investigat
By Bob Dietz Asia Programme Coordinator Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) As the Sri Lankan government steps up its war with the LTTE, assaults on journalists are on the rise. … Continue reading
Sri Lanka dangerous for media: watchdog
American-based media human rights group Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ] says that escalating violence in South Asia is putting a growing number of journalists at risk. CPJ said that in … Continue reading
Media rights group presses Sri Lanka
WASHINGTON (AFP) A rights group has urged Sri Lanka to thoroughly investigate recent attacks against the media, saying it was disappointed with the government’s stance. Board members of the … Continue reading
