நடப்பு அரசியல்

[Mathan]

Journalists critical of govt officials and Tamil rebel groups still risked threats and harassment in 2003.

Bandula Jayasekara in Colombo, SLT 11.35 A.M Thursday 11 March.
The Committe to Protect Journalists say in its annual report that though the cease-fire in Sri Lanka brought journalists greater access to northern and eastern Sri Lanka last year and the military removed roadblocks and checkpoints Journalists who wrote critical stories about government officials and Tamil rebel groups still risked threats and harassment in 2003. The annual report cites the cases of how on May 7, Ponniah Manikavasagam, a regular contributor to the BBC and a correspondent for the Tamil-language daily Virakesari, received a phone call at his home in Vavuniya accusing him of supporting the LTTE and warning him that he would be "killed very soon." The call was traced to an office run by the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, a Tamil group strongly opposed to. Another case the report cited is how on August 7, a group of LTTE activists ambushed a truck delivering the Tamil-language weekly Thinamurasu in Sunkankeni and burned about 5,000 copies. Thinamurasu is known for its reporting on LTTE human rights abuses and supports the Eelam People's Democratic Party. Two of its local correspondents has also received death threats in June from an LTTE leader in the northern district of Mannar.

The CPJ report also cites the case how , Fisheries Minister Mahinda Wijesekera threatened to have Lasantha Wickramatunga, the editor of The Sunday Leader, stabbed or shot to death in retalia-tion for a series of investigative articles exposing corruption in his ministry. The report points out that although the minister issued a statement denying those allegations, he had reportedly made similar threats against the journalists in a closed government meeting on August 4.. The CPJ report says although Sri Lankan press freedom groups condemned Wijesekera, the police never investigated the threats, showing that a climate of impunity continues to exist in Sri Lanka.


இலங்கையில் இன்னும் பத்திரிகையாளர்களுக்கும் கருத்து சுதந்திரத்துக்கும் அச்சுறுத்தல் தொடர்வதாக பத்திரிகையாளர்களை பாதுகாக்கும் அமைப்பு (CPJ) தனது ஆண்டறிக்கையில் கூறியுள்ளது. அது தொடர்பான செய்தியை மேலே போட்டிருக்கேன் படித்து விட்டு இலங்கையில் கருத்து சுதந்திரம் எப்படி இருக்கு மற்றும் ஊடகங்கள் நடுநிலைமை பத்தின உங்க கருத்தை எழுதுங்க.