Many journalists have disappeared throughout the years when Rajapaksa was president. Others have been killed for holding views that go against the government. Concerns over democracy and freedom of media independence are justified and the unjustified reinstatement of the former president brings back dark memories of Rajapaksa’s presidency for many in the industry. …
Diplomat - Nov 05 22:27 GMT - more ... [ Tags: Media, SriLanka, WarCrimes ]
"On behalf of Foreign Correspondents’ Association (FCA) of Sri Lanka, it is with grave concern we note this is an act of creating fear psychosis among independent media who not only use the freedom of expression ethically but also not defaming anybody and keeping news to facts," Shihar Aneez of the FCA said. Ameen, a prominent journalist in Sri Lanka, is a…
Asian Mirror - May 09 18:32 GMT - more ... [ Tags: Media, History, SriLanka ]
Former DIG Prasanna Nanayakkara was arrested this morning over the probe into the assassination of former Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunga by Criminal Investigations Department (CID), police said. Mr Nanayakkara, who was then Police DIG of Mount Lavinya region suspected to have concealed critical evidence over the murder, according to police. He will be…
Sunday Times - Feb 15 15:08 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Politics, SLMilitary, Media ]
It was the police line-up from hell. Forget all those "Law and Order" scenes where a victim stands anonymously behind a one-way mirror. Sri Lankan journalist Namal Perera had to stand eyeball-to-eyeball with 42 army intelligence officers in April, each of whom, Perera explained to me while demonstrating his fiercest tough-guy glare, faced him with a cold stare and…
CPJ - Jan 12 20:42 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Media, SriLanka, WarCrimes ]
The start of August saw silent vigils in Male – the capital of the Maldives – to mark the 100th day since the death of liberal blogger Yameen Rasheed, who was assassinated in his apartment building on April 23, 2017. No less than 37 stab wounds had been recorded on his body at the time of death. “I don’t want to believe that the murder of my brother Yameen…
Groundviews - Dec 05 16:47 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Politics, HumanRights, Media ]
We call him Prem. The editor of the largest selling Jaffna daily, Thevanayagam Premanath, is sitting at a large table with his usual smile. The wall behind him has three bullet marks. Two photographs of slain media workers, probably killed by the same machine gun, are hung on the wall above the round bullet marks. ‘Compared to the Rahapaksa era we have media…
Groundviews - Oct 06 15:10 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
His biographer speaks of the unimaginable cultural consequences of living continually under the gun. Although this comment was made about Tamil communities living in Sri Lanka more widely, it provides the basis for understanding Dharmaretnam Sivaram’s core beliefs about the role of intellectuals, or those with knowledge (and privilege) in public life. It is these…
Groundviews - May 26 07:43 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
Five officers in Sri Lanka’s military intelligence apparatus have been arrested on suspicion of assassinating a newspaper editor eight years ago — in a murder with a dramatic aftermath, and one that became an example of the previous government’s attacks on dissidents. Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of the Sunday Leader, was killed in 2009 while on his way…
The National - Feb 23 08:05 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
The Chief Minister of the Tamil-majority Northern Province of Sri Lanka, C.V.Wigneswaran, on Sunday charged that the Sri Lankan government is not investigating the killing or disappearance of Tamil journalists when it is investigating cases involving Sinhalese journalists. “When the present leaders assumed power in 2015, they promised to investigate the killing and…
IE - Nov 07 14:16 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, HumanRights, Media ]
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the Free Media Movement (FMM) in condemning the inaction of the police while a TV journalist was threatened inside a police station in Sri Lanka on September 27. The IFJ demands that the authorities immediately investigate the incident. Ranjith Karunaweera, a journalist with Hiru TV in…
IFJ - Oct 05 15:20 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, Colombo, Media ]
Senior journalist and former Editor of the 'Rivira' Upali Tennekoon identified the person who attacked him in January 2009, in a parade before Gampaha Acting Magistrate Mahesh Herath this morning. The suspect is a former sergeant attached to the Intelligence Unit of the Sri Lanka Army. He is the same officer held in connection with the murder of Lasantha…
CDN - Aug 26 14:28 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, Media, History ]
The 17th edition of the Journalism Awards for Excellence 2015 was held yesterday, August 02, 2016 at the Empire Ballroom of the Mt. Lavinia Hotel. The event is jointly organized by The Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka (TEGOSL) and the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI). A total of more than 200 applications from 11 newspaper publishing groups were received by the…
Sunday Times - Aug 03 05:10 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Media, History, SriLanka ]
Today’s event focuses on one man. Today morning, there was a protest in Colombo, organized by a coalition of media freedom groups and others, demanding accountability for Sivaram’s murder. It is fitting that events to remember Sivaram are held in both North and South, as he had also worked and lived in South and had many friends in the South. Although the…
Groundviews - May 07 15:07 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
Hundreds of journalists and media rights activists protested today to demand Sri Lanka's new government start a fresh investigation into the abduction and killing of a prominent ethnic Tamil journalist 11 years ago, during the country's civil war. Those demonstrating in front of Colombo's main railroad station said Dharmeratnam Sivaram was targeted because of…
First Post - Apr 29 15:43 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, SriLanka ]
The probe into the murder of the founding Editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge has taken a new twist with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) turning the investigation towards the Terrorism Investigations Division (TID), which was handed over the inquiry by the former regime. The CID has already interrogated a former Inspector General of…
Sunday Leader - Mar 27 14:08 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
The Joint Operations Command (JOC) received a tip-off an hour before the founding Editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge was killed, sources said. According to the sources, the tip-off had been received by a military official who was in charge of the Western Province.A former top official of the JOC had informed the Criminal Investigations Department…
Sunday Leader - Feb 28 12:29 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
It is fitting therefore that FSA this year is showing News from Jaffna - a 28-minute long documentary that follows the path of a young female journalist, Thadsa, who works for Uthayan - a widely known daily paper run by Tamils out of Jaffna. The paper refuses to blink in the face of widespread media censorship - which exists, as Thadsa points out in one of her…
Nepal Times - Nov 20 14:08 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Jaffna, Media ]
When Bernard Duhaime, the Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, held a press conference at the UN on October 22, Inner City Press asked him about his country visit to Sri Lanka set for next month, and about how the Working Group considers disappearances and worse by ISIS and other “non-state groups.” Duhaime said he…
ICP - Oct 27 13:22 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Media, SriLanka, Genocide ]
It has been established that the journalist, who was abducted in Colombo two days before the Presidential election in 2010, had been taken to Girithale Army camp where he was questioned by a group of intelligence unit officers. Lt. Col. Shammi Kumara Ratnayake, Lt. Col. Siriwardena, Staff Sergeant Rajapakse, Corporal Jayalath, retired Sergeant Maj. Ranbanda, Sergeant…
CDN - Sep 25 10:22 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, Media, History ]
Four army officers have been arrested in Sri Lanka over the abduction and suspected killing of a political journalist during the regime of former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, police said on Monday. The disappearance of Pradeep Ekneligoda five years ago was never investigated after senior members of the former president’s regime claimed that the journalist was…
DPA/NAN - Aug 24 19:12 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, HumanRights, Media ]
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake today requested journalists and media institutions to be careful when using the media freedom that prevails under the new government. He said journalists should verify their facts and figures by speaking to the sources without writing news stories just to fulfill certain agendas. “Attacking us through the media is fine but…
Daily Mirror - May 27 13:06 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Politics, Media, WarCrimes ]
Sri Lankan media rights activists hold placards featuring portraits of slain journalists during a candle light vigil in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. Sri Lankan journalists and media rights activists lit candles to remember the dozens oThe Associated Press Sri Lankan media rights activists hold placards featuring portraits of slain journalists during a…
ABC News - Jan 30 20:34 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, HumanRights, Media ]
The Prime Minister wants to know why the media is criticizing the present government and why it isn’t criticizing the Rajapaksas on whose watch journalists were killed. Perhaps that is because the media recalls that two prominent journalist were killed when the Rajapaksas weren’t anywhere near the room at the top, but two pillars of Yahapalana were. The first…
Island - Dec 07 15:40 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Media, History, WarCrimes ]
Highlighting the poor turnout of heads of Sri Lankan media organizations at today's UNESCO Regional Conference to End Impunity of Crimes against Journalists in Colombo, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe questioned whether the media organizations are really interested in media rights. The event inaugurated by the Premier was held parallel to the 2017 International…
Daily Mirror - Dec 04 17:53 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Media, History, SriLanka ]
A prominent left-wing Indian journalist critical of Hindu nationalist politics has been shot dead in the south-western Karnataka state, police say. Gauri Lankesh, 55, was found lying in a pool of blood outside her home in the city of Bangalore. The motive for the crime was not immediately clear. She was shot in the head and chest by gunmen who arrived by…
BBC - Sep 06 00:16 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: India, Media, World ]
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ), which has an arresting headline on its website titled “Sri Lanka: Where Journalists are Killed with Impunity,” lists the killings of 25 Sri Lankan journalists since 1992, with 19 where “motives were confirmed” and six with “motives unconfirmed.” David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on ‘the…
Citizen - May 05 10:37 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, Media, History ]
Police in Sri Lanka have arrested five military intelligence officers on suspicion of assassinating a prominent anti-establishment newspaper editor and orchestrating attacks on other journalists and dissidents under the former regime, a legal source has said. The 2009 killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge, a fierce critic of the then president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, provoked…
The Guardian - Feb 23 08:03 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
A 52-year-old retired sergeant major attached to the Intelligence Unit of the Army had allegedly committed suicide after writing a letter claiming that he had assassinated Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. Sgt. Major Ilandarage Jayamanne, was a resident of Dehipitiya Road at Karandupana in Kegalle. The letter had been titled ‘To whom it may…
Daily Mirror - Oct 14 14:56 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, Media, History ]
A BBC World Service journalist who claims he was sacked for favouring coverage about the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils has won an appeal and successfully argued that he was unfairly dismissed. “It seemed very clear that the BBC Sinhala service gave the impression of toeing the government line, particularly when it came to the tragic events at the end of the war. …
PressGazette - Sep 16 13:09 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Media, SriLanka, WarCrimes ]
Mahinda Rajapaksa was president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015. Since Maithripala Sirisena assumed the presidency in January 2015, what’s changed in terms of media freedom? The current government has had a better track record in relation to freedom of expression (FOE) and media freedoms. But then, we must remember that all human freedoms suffered so heavily…
Huffington Post - Aug 04 02:11 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media ]
The International Press institute (IPI) today called on Sri Lanka’s government to bring to justice those behind the recent beating of a journalist who was attacked and struck in the head with a pole. Freddy Gamage, editor of website Meepura and convener of Sri Lanka’s Professional Web Journalists Association was walking towards his car after covering a Negombo…
IPI - Jun 10 09:53 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Media, History, SriLanka ]
Former editor in chief of the Nation in Thailand, Kavi Chongkittavorn received an unexpected scoop when visiting Sri Lanka in the 1990s. The source – Minister of Foreign Affairs Lakshman Kadirgamar, who challenged, “If I give you stories… stories which involve Thailand, will you write them?” Chongkittavorn replied that it was his duty to do so. The…
Groundviews - May 07 15:05 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
The notorious 'Terrorist' Investigation Division (TID), operated by the 'Defence Ministry' of genocidal Sri Lanka has arrested V.S. Sivakaran, the Youth Wing secretary of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) and the editor of Tamil weekly ‘Puthiyavan’ on Wednesday afternoon at the paper office located on Mannaar Main street. Sivakaran's arrest is an attempt to…
TamilNet - Apr 27 19:15 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: SLMilitary, Mannar, Media ]
The Sri Lankan government has instructed all websites to register with the Ministry of Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media before March 31, 2016. "The announcement is a significant one," says Sanjana Hattotuwa, a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think tank. Hattotuwa says the edict is illegal, just as it was when Mahinda…
Huffington Post - Mar 03 11:36 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Media, History, SriLanka ]
Subramanium Ramachandran, a Jaffna based Tamil journalist disappeared on 15th of February 2007 in Jaffna. Despite eyewitness accounts of being detained at an Army checkpoint and camps, till today his whereabouts are unknown and his elderly parents and family await his arrival every day. His colleagues and family remember him as a courageous journalist who would write…
Groundviews - Feb 16 20:08 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
Sri Lanka is 165th in the World Press Freedom Index. The focus of the index for Sri Lanka was Uthayan - which was the target of two violent attacks within the space of 10 days in April. Two of its employees were injured, its printing press was set on fire and the premises were badly damaged. Uthayan received a Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize, remaining…
CB - Nov 09 14:38 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: Colombo, Media, SriLanka ]
Sri Lankan police have detained 11 people, most of them soldiers or former soldiers, in a widening probe into the disappearance of a cartoonist that has become a test case of the new government's resolve to address human rights abuses. Prageeth Eknaligoda, a fierce critic of former president Mahinda Rajapakse, went missing near Colombo more than five years ago,…
Reuters - Oct 23 10:18 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, SriLanka ]
Sri Lanka's police Monday arrested four army personnel, including two senior officers, in connection with the disappearance of a dissident cartoonist that triggered international condemnation of the island's rights record. Two lieutenant colonels, a sergeant and a corporal were arrested following the testimony given by three other suspects already in custody over the…
AFP - Aug 25 02:19 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about Sri Lankan authorities' decision to re-establish the Sri Lankan Press Council, a media regulatory body which gives the government powers to jail journalists in connection with their reporting. The Press Council was established under the 1973 Press Council law and is made up of members appointed by the…
CPJ - Jul 09 12:17 GMT - more ...
[ Tags: HumanRights, Media, WarCrimes ]
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